Tattoos on the sky
by Pernshinigami
Summary: Grimmjow knocks Ichigo and Yoruichi through dimensions, Ichigo to Metropolis, Yoruichi to Gotham. The gotei thirteen sends a chase team out to find them. Yoruichi hides in Wayne Manor in cat form to recover from her wounds, while Superman brings Ichigo to the watchtower to hide him from Grimmjow while he recovers. Can Ichigo and yoruichi fight off the Espada to get home?
1. Chapter 1

Ichigo plummetted through a nearby building, a diagonal angle, shooting straight through it like a bullet. Grimmjow shot after him. Ichigo's vision was swimming. What had happened? He was on his way home and Grimmjow had just nailed him out of the blue, tore at him with some kind of shimmering brass knuckles like arrangement, only with claws. Ichigo had left his body and started fighting, signaling to Rukia, Renji, and the others in his group what had happened. Then Grimmjow had begun a fierce barrage of cero energy channeled into physical blows via his claws. The claws on his hands glowed. He'd heard some kind of cracking noise, like glass, and he was plummeting through a garganta with odd purple, black and blue energy sparking off it. (1)

It was as if he'd gone blind but with a headsplitting migrane tearing him to pieces. Grimmjow's laughter echoed in his head. Then in the dark, two figures had briefly been seen plummeting with him, one green, one blue, trying to get a good look at him. Then they were gone, there was a loud crash like breaking glass.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Through the building. Ichigo was too far gone, too weak to read the sign on top but it looked like it was topped with a globe. Then Grimmjow's release form filled his vision. Grimmjow brought his legs up in a massive kick and smashed Ichigo face first into the pavement. Ichigo had, by then, summoned his mask, and it absorbed the blow preventing a serious head injury.

Grimmjow crowed his superiority, only for a blur of red and blue to blindside him, slamming him away from Ichigo and up into the sky. Ichigo lay there, struggling to get up. He wasn't sure what was going on. His vision swum, his head throbbed. Zangetsu and Ogichi were screaming in agony inside his head.

He blacked out, and when his vision cleared a group of policemen were leaning over him. He let out a strangled groan of pain. One of the officers reached to try to remove his mask, a look of concern on her face. "no!" a man's voice said sharply. A figure stepped forwards, and the woman pulled her hand back. Ichigo took in the strange green man with orange eyes and a cape, the figure swimming in and out of focus. He could barely focus on the man, and he wanted to focus on something. They didn't know how dangerous Grimmjow was! They should run! "Respect his privacy if you don't mind... I'll take him up to the watchtower, get the civilians out of the area."

"But sir!"

"If the daily planet building comes down it will take other buildings nearby down with it. The other senior members are working on shoring it up so repairs can begin and evacuating the staff. But the intruder is still fighting with..." blackness.

_King? _Ogichi's voice was faint. _I feel so weak, and Zangetsu, the old man is out cold._

_Where are we?_

_I don't know, I can tell you're safe but... your reiatsu's been drained immensely King._

_I need to sleep._

_Okay, the doctors have your back. I can kinda sense them working on ya._

Nothingness.

* * *

Rukia and Renji brought Kon and Urahara to Yamamoto. The two of them had witnessed part of the attack, but Urahara had been too far away to intervene and the fight had happened so fast and furious that there was little time to do anything. Yoruichi had tried to grab Ichigo at the very last second, and fallen in after them.

"You're certain it wasn't a normal garganta?" Yamamoto asked, calling for Mayuri and Byakuya.

"I'm positive sotaichou, normal gargantas don't sparkle." Urahara said quietly. "and while a variety of shapes are possible depending on the arrancar's control over his reiatsu, a perfectly round garganta is very rare." (1)

"Alright, you and Kurotsuchi, I need you to analyze the space around Karakura town and see if you can find something. Captain Kuchiki will take point on this matter however, and you're to stay with his squad when you aren't working."

"Thank you..."

Kon looked really upset. "Is... is Ichigo coming back?"

"We're going to try to bring him back Kon." Kisuke told him.

"Our priority is to bring substitute shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo home alive Kon-san." Yamamoto said quietly. "We don't have central anymore, until the winter war is over the spirit king is unwilling to select a new central fourty six chambers. He's a powerful ally, and he may play a bigger part in the war this winter than we expected."

Kon nodded, gulping slightly. The insinuation was that times were different now. The Soul society must have learned quite a bit since Aizen's rebellion. Orihime had been rescued, Aizen's forces and resources decimated, and he'd been repelled from Karakura town when he attempted to make the o-ken but had evaded capture. Since then, Aizen had been sending his arrancar to raid Karakura town, wreaking havoc to buy time while he attempted to figure out a new strategy.

"This will be a war of attrition this winter. Odds are none of us will come away unscarred." Yamamoto mused. "Kurosaki Ichigo is not only a hero, he's an encouraging presence who spurrs the other shinigami to push themselves to their limits and beyond. His loss would be a devastating blow to the gotei thirteen's morale and to our firepower." _And an enormous loss to the soul society._

* * *

When Yoruichi came to she was resting on a large satin cushion. There were bandages around her wounds, and she was still in cat form. She got up, wobbling to the edge of the bed. There was a newspaper on the floor, "Gotham Gazette..." Yoruichi read. She crawled over to the newspaper and settled herself down to read. The front page was about a robbery by some guy in a cybernetic suit named Mister Freeze, appearantly he'd gotten away with millions of dollars in diamonds, and was well known for his preference for the gems for some reason, though the reason why wasn't stated in the article.

"Oh there you are!" A woman walked in, smiling hugely. "You should take it easy little kitty..." Yoruichi yawned, noting the cat of nine tails clipped to the belt of the woman's otherwise normal outfit. "C'mere..." She scooped Yoruichi up and sat down on the bed with her in the woman's lap and a cup of coffee in hand.

Yoruichi couldn't help it, she purred, and then the woman produced a catnip mouse from her pocket, and another female cat hopped up on the bed next to them. The cat sniffed Yoruichi, yowled in surprise, and darted behind the bedroom dresser.

"Selena!" A mousy looking woman with red hair hurried in with a clip board. "You're meeting with Bruce Wayne today over lunch, those panther walkways you're trying to have the State of Florida install under the highways?"

"Oh right, he's got to look over my plans and see if he can bring the cost down for the state." The woman sighed. Yoruichi meowed, then the black cat hopped up next to her, sniffing her slightly. Yoruichi meowed again. "Oh! The new kitty's awake." The girl chuckled a little, then hurried to the kitchen and came back with two cans of salmon.

The woman set them on the bed with the two cats, accustomed to such fare the other cat bent down to begin eating. "Now you girls had better be good okay?" The woman took a long appreciative sip of her coffee. "i've got to see if Bruce can recommend a scientific assignment. With my history I could always be security to some university team or something."

The redhead rolled her eyes. "Adrenaline addict." She flicked the television on.

"We're live in Metropolis with a special news report! A bizzare half man, half cat creature is fighting with Superman after he crashed straight through the Daily Planet build..." "Selena" picked up the remote and changed the channel to a "syfy channel original movie, Sharknado returns, then its Category 6 and Category 7: Day of Destruction on our storm movie marathon, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Watch the craziest storm sy fy original movies back to back all day for three days."

"No offense, but someone is /always/ smashing something in Metropolis. Superman's a magnet for uber strong /freaks./" Selena growled irritably.

"You're one to talk, you get a cat costume on and steal artifacts from thieves." The girl pointed out.

"Priceless artifacts that they don't appreciate." Selena replied. The black cat yawned, licking her lips and Yoruichi lay there, looking back and forth from one woman to another.

"Anyway..." Selena replied. "Catwoman doesn't come out too often anymore. I just can't find the right challenge to take on with her. And as for the "one to talk" bit. Gotham has its own brand of freaks, and /we're/ more fond of subterfuge."

The phone rang. Selena got up to get it. "Selena Kyle here... oh hi there Bruce. Yes I'm still on for lunch, by the way, is it true you want to foster one of my rescue cats?" A pause. "Really, well I've got a nice one here, female, exact same markings as my Isis and the two are currently chilling on my nice clean silk sheets." Pause. "Uhuh, thats why any pricy bed coverings I have are black Bruce, hides the cat hairs when Isis decides its cuddly time."

Yoruichi inwardly smirked. So she had two names, and two people, she was going to hide until she was fully healed, and then go to this Metropolis place to find Grimmjow. Where Grimmjow was, there she was certain to find Ichigo. _Hang on Ichigo, I won't let anything happen to you, I promise. _She looked up at the ceiling, listening to Selena beg this Bruce character for a position on a science mission of some kind. _Soifon, I'm sorry... I don't see any way I'm coming back. I miss you. Kisuke, Isshin, I'm going to take care of Ichigo, I promise. I'm not letting him disappear._

* * *

Ichigo was floating in the most enjoyable warm void. He was floating in a reclining position, like he was sitting in an arm chair. A huge pale figure appeared in front of him, dressed in a rich green cloak and hood. "Who are you?" Ichigo blinked.

_An angel of vengeance, and redemption... but I want to know, /now/ who are you, where are you from, why are you intruding in this place?_

"Define intruding... you're the one in /my/ dream."

_I was ordered to investigate your presence here, you aren't from this world, and there is a dark presence in your soul._

"**no shit sherlock." **Ogichi appeared, yawning hugely. **"dafuq is your problem? King asked you a question, why are /you/ in /his/ dream." **

_He asked me nothing. _The figure's deep baritone voice sounded annoyed now.

Ichigo sighed. "lets try this again, my name is Ichigo Kurosaki, I'm a substitute shinigami. And the grumpy guy over here is my other half, Ogichi Shirosaki."

_Your name backwards and the Japanese word for white melded with your surname._

"Yeah, I couldn't just call him "hollow" all the time. I can't really cope with somebody not having a name. Now what's yours? You told me /what/ you are but not who."

The figure was silent. He looked suspiciously down at the two boys.

_Shinigami? _The figure questioned. _What is this "Shinigami?" _

"Well you see, shinigami help dead souls cross over and keep people from harming souls." Ichigo explained. I'm a substitute, which means I got my powers from another shinigami while I was still alive. So I'm neither alive nor dead, at least for now. The other shinigami deputized me after a really long battle. Kind of like a field commission!" Ichigo grinned. "I'm from Karakura town! But... I'm really worried about my friends. They're gonna miss me, I heard voices speaking english before I blacked out. I'm not that good with english but... they sounded American."

_I will go and investigate this further. _The figure turned to leave. _You will likely only see me again if you're in trouble or I find something significant to you. _He hesitated, then looked over his shoulder at Ichigo. _Tread carefully upon the ground you walk, if you abuse the privilege of being in the world I guard you will not like how I punish you. _

He disappeared, and Ichigo slept again. During his sleep several strange spirits invaded his dreams, peering at him and whispering in hushed tones, too curious it seemed, to wait till he'd awakened. But he didn't bother them. Spirits gawking at him and poking at him had happened since he was a boy. A couple of them stood out in his mind either as being demonic or as being particularly flamboyant looking ghosts with no visible soul chain. But he couldn't keep the details fixed in his mind other than those of that pale figure.

* * *

Superman had nearly exhausted himself by the time Grimmjow gave up, indeed, the odd half cat, half panther man/creature had fought to get to the boy until he's been teleported up to the watch tower. Then Grimmjow had thrown a temper tantrum about how Superman was depriving him of his prey.

It had taken a full six hours for Superman to drive Grimmjow out of Metropolis. SIX HOURS.

So he was glad that the medics told him their visitor was stable in the infirmary when he returned to the watchtower. He was glad that J'on had made his favorite tea to calm him down and taken care of his share of the League's paperwork, just patrol reports left to go over. He was glad that Lois called him an hour after he got in to make sure he was alright and let him know she was alright as well.

But most of all he was glad the strange visitor, savaged by his attacker, was blissfully sedated in the infirmary and in no danger of dying from his wounds.

"He's a spirit of some kind." J'on told him as the two of them sat sipping tea. J'on had gotten a pet, an elderly scottish terrier, to keep him company on his shifts in the control room. Scotch, named for the drink of Vigilante's that the elderly dog had tipped over in his exuberance the first day there, was snoozing in J'on's lap while they went over assignment reports from the lower ranking league members. "That much I can tell. But something has made him corporeal. His mind is very confused, and he drifts in and out of awareness. I can sense some kind of dialogue in his head, possibly some kind of construction in his mind. It is odd, he has no telepathic abilities, which is usually the type of meta human to have that kind of mind..."

"Like yours." Superman mused. Only psychics had the ability to create 'worlds' inside their mind. It was used to order their powers.

"We'll watch this one carefully." J'on sighed. "He might make a good league member but I'd like to know why he was fighting with that Grimmjow character. I sensed in his mind that the boy knew him."

"Well, in non super law enforcement, a lot of violent crimes are done by people known to the victim, if only briefly." Superman sighed. "Lets get through this paperwork and give the medics a chance to do their job."

"Alright."

* * *

Yoruichi slept in the carrier, trying her best not to look like she was in pain. The limo ride was nice and smooth though, hardley a jolt to disturb her bruises and broken bones. "Hey there Bruce, I brought your foster." Selena kissed a black haired, square shouldered man in a suit on the cheek and handed him the carrier. "She'll have to have her bandages changed twice a day, there's some mild strength pain drops for her too, just put the dose in her water bowl. She seems quite mellow for wounds so bad. I swear, where did a cat get such terrible impact wounds? Her whole right side is bruised and her shoulder blade is fractured."

"I'll do my best. Alfred knows more about caring for animal injuries than I do, but I'm sure she'll enjoy sunbathing in the garden. We just put new rose bushes in there last month."

Yoruichi yawned.

"Oh and she seems to like newspapers, kept crawling over to this morning's gazette and using it for a pillow." Selena smiled. "She's awefully mellow for a cat that badly injured."

Yoruichi meowed briskly, rising up to a sitting position in the cage. She had to get somebody to care for her wounds, without someone who knew healing kidou near by she was stuck recovering her broken bones the old fashioned way.

"now... about this idea of yours."

The carrier was handed off to an old man, who smiled through the front of the cat carrier. "Its alright little one, I've got a nice warm fire and soft cushions ready for your aching bones and all the fish and catnip you can eat." The old man, whom Yoruichi assumed was Alfred carried the cat carrier inside to a small sitting room in the mansion and opened the door. Yoruichi hobbled out, finding a nice velvet cushion, a dish of salmon, a dish of milk, and the same newspaper she was interrupted in reading for the car trip plus four others from different cities. Letting out a pleased meow she sat down to drink her milk. Best to keep herself quiet and act like an ordinary cat.

"Lets see the new arrival Alfred!" A couple of boys, one teenage, one in his early twenties ran in.

"aaaah, Master Dick, Master Timothy... we need to come up with a name for this young lady."

Yoruichi yawned, looking up at the two boys as the younger of the two bent down to stroke her head and scratch her behind the ears. "i set up the litter box like you asked Alfred." The boy, Timothy said with a grin. "As for names, I wanted to do something that fits our... nightly escapades." He grinned at that last bit, as though it was a shared secret between the two boys and the butler.

"Very good Master Timothy, I'll take care of the foster's medical care while she's here, but its come to my attention that Master Bruce thinks you need to develop a more responsible attitude, so you're to take care of feeding and other matters." Yoruichi was scooped up by the boy and carried firmly but gently in his arms.

"Hmm, I guess for now I'll call her Shadow." The boy grinned. "don't worry Alfred, I'll take good care of her."

"And try not to be rough, cats can become skittish if handled too roughly."

"What's with all the newspapers?" The older boy, Dick, asked curiously.

"Miss Kyle seems to think she likes laying on them. And so it seemed to be just before you arrived. She'd sat down neat as you please to drink her milk, right on..." Alfred gestured to a newspaper page with a picture of a man with a horribly disfigured face.

"HA! I like you already! You sat on Puke Face!" Timothy chuckled, scritching Yoruichi's chin. "Clever little Shadow!"

"Anyway Alfred, Barbera's coming over later. Let her know I'm in the study, not my room? I've got a paper to write." The older boy, Dick, turned to go, smiling a bit to himself.

Yoruichi purred happily. This was, if anything, going to be the most pleasant recovery she'd ever had from a battle wound! Still, she had to keep focused. Ichigo needed her!

* * *

Two days went by, three days, and finally Urahara, Byakuya, and Mayuri emerged from their investigation with startling information. Yamamoto's face grew grimmer and grimmer the more he heard what they had to say. Finally he spoke. "Call a captains and lieutenants meeting, and please inform Isshin Kurosaki we have news on his son and the vizards that I will need their assistance."

Byakuya's jaw clenched. Mayuri whirled on a heal and strode out, haori floating behind him, Kisuke put a gentle hand on Byakuya's shoulder. "Kuchiki-san, Mayuri has never been known for his social skills. We should take care of the notifications."

"Agreed."

* * *

1. I've been playing too much minecraft, the special garganta looks an end portal without the frame. *smirks* I kinda cheated on the ender dragon the other day, fought him in peaceful. The little snot still killed me three times, but I digress. The "special garganta" was inspired by the end portal.


	2. D-technolife

A/N: The smells of pasta sauce and seasonings come from the author's kitchen, the sound of Skillet "Sick of it" and "Not gonna die tonight" as well as Thousand Foot Krutch "Courtesy call" issue from her computer. A ferret is flopped somewhere in the apartment thats dark and comfortable, and minecraft is left idle as the authoress begins to edit.

RIGHT! I wasn't sure how much attention this fic would get. I was very happy at all the favorites! Thank you! I happen to be fairly good at crossovers and after reading a naruto/justice league fanfic called "Connecting the Dots" i had an idea to do this one. Now that I know people are actually paying attention, whoopie! Lets get going.

Oh yes, Adam Buckley rules, Endermen are cute as buttons and sound like hoover vacumes, Ferrets would be the best ever superpet for Flash and YOUR MOTHER. That is all.

* * *

"Now, the government doctors that advise civilians on these matters are instructed to say 'you may get thyroid cancer' from not taking these during a nuclear incident. 'May' is an understatement. If you don't take your iosat tablets during a nuclear incident, you /will/ get Thyroid cancer. Could be next year, could be next decade, could be fifty years from now."

Yoruichi had sprawled herself out in the odd cave on a bunch of newspapers. Not far off, the dog, Ace, had simply laid down near the giant computer databank and was almost asleep. Yoruichi was reading the papers from Gotham and Metropolis, though clearly the humans didn't think she was sentient enough to read since "Shadow" was only a cat.

The man, Bruce, was giving a lecture on emergency management during a nuclear accident or strike, a chemical attack, or a biological terror attack or naturally occuring outbreak. The boy, Timothy, had carried her down the hidden passageway that evening along with the girl "Barbara" and the older boy "Dick." The Butler, Alfred, had set up for the lesson and then gone to make tea and something sweet for the dessert for the three teens. The quartet had hurried into a dressing room, come out in costume, and started addressing each other by codenames. Joining them for a lesson were two others in costume, codenames Huntress and Question.

"Now Iosat tablets won't protect the rest of you, they won't protect your lungs, your skin, your eyes, or any vital or non vital part of your body. However, taking them prevents one kind of cancer that could result from nuclear exposure. The Batfamily keeps a regularly rotating stockpile for up to two dozen people. In a nuclear accident, get your own Iosat tabs first. Then /our/ plan is to bring a round each to the Police Commisioner and the Mayor, /assuming/ that both are still alive. The remaining stockpile is for Justice League first responders working on the rescue mission, and they will almost certainly mount one. Captain Atom is almost certain to be on whatever team they send, along with Green Arrow due to his experience protesting nuclear armament.

"For the /rest/ of your vital organs, it /is/ possible to reduce your exposure. Alfred constantly and consistantly has hazmat versions of your costumes on hand for emergencies like these and these same hazmat bat costumes are certified for protection against radiation, biological weapons down to the size of a flu virus, and chemical weapons both commonly researched during the cold war and commonly used by our rogues Gallery including Scarecrow's Feargas and Poison Ivy's mind control pollen."

Batman walked over to a nearby armor stand and gestured to a large skintight version of his current costume very similar to the CDC's hazmat suits. "Its all one piece, there isn't even an opening between the gloves and shoes and the sleeves. In the wrist we have a detector for any number of biological and chemical contaminates from Chemo's toxic slime to nerve gas to anthrax to ebolla and smallpox. Not only that, but if you're infected, it will /tell/ you."

Timothy/Robin raised his hand. "uh, Bats didn't I learn in school last month that Smallpox was eradicated in the 70s?"

"it wasn't entirely eradicated." Question replied. "Somebody decided it was too useful."

Batman gestured for Question to be quiet. "Smallpox officially exists only in two laboratories. It wasn't completely destroyed because it had a piece of stray human DNA in it that allows Smallpox to fool the body's inflammatory response. One in America at Fort Deitrich Maryland, one in Russia, and here's the caveat. The stockpile dates from the soviet era. When the soviet union collapsed /everything/ was up for grabs. Thats part of why we're doing this lesson. The Soviets had massive stockpiles of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, parts, and materials. Not only did the Soviets have human biological weapons like smallpox, they also had warheads packed with the blight strain Ug 99. You might say "so what? Its a wheat blight, its not gonna kill anyone." Wrong, Ug 99 is an indirect killer, and could cause massive famine if it got loose in the United States. Three different companies in Gotham including Wayne Tech are trying to create strains of wheat resistant to this blight. But such strains of wheat aren't widespread.

"Such indirect killers are the reason why the /entire/ soviet chemical and biological weapons stockpile is coded into the wrist detector on these hazard suits, regardless of if it can kill human beings. As far as I'm concerned, terrorists or dictatorial countries /have/ these weapons. Its easier for an emergency planner to assume that they have /everything/ than that they have nothing or something." Batman explained.

"now, in addition to the detector, every suit has a dosimeter for detecting radiation. Its located in your icon." He tapped a glass icon in the shape of a bat on the suit three times. The icon beeped. "That beep means the dosimeter is working. To make sure its okay, tap it three times. If its been tampered with, the dosimeter will automatically turn red and make a loud screeching noise. Now the dosimeter detects the /amount/ of radiation you've been exposed to, not how much time you have left. So the amount of time you have to work in any given nuclear hotzone is varied, and widely. There was a recent poll of emergency responders in Gotham, Central City, and Metropolis in which 34 percent of Gotham's emergency responders stated they would remain in a radioactive hotzone longer than was safe for them to be there to help save injured victims, in central that number was 47 percent and in Metropolis 65 percent. Similar polls of military and intelligence personelle as well as federal law enforcement indicate that Gotham's percentage is the exception rather than the rule. The FBI had the highest number in this poll, gotham the lowest. And besides Gotham, nobody had fewer than 40 percent of their first responders say they would do this. The point is, you /can/ take the risk of staying in a nuclear contaminated area if you want to. But I will not tell you whether or not you should to it. Thats /your/ call. There's no way to tell if the people you save during the emergency will be more or less than the lives you save during the rest of your total career. There is /no/ way to know, therefore, there is no way to know if that kind of sacrifice is worth it."

Yoruichi looked up at Timothy, the youngest of the three, to see his reaction. The boy was quiet, jaw tensed. So long as he was taking this seriously Yoruichi had no objection to what she suspected was a lifestyle much like the old ninjas of Japan. Though the types of emergencies and missions possible was clearly different, the idea and lifestyle was more or less the same.

"That said, I've done everything in my power to make sure that you have as much time as possible to accomplish as much as possible. We have automated drones that can be remote controlled to investigate hazardous sites, we have a variety of tools that only a Kryptonian couldn't be cut by. We have detectors, filters, masks, medicines, we even have quarantine chambers, fully automated with respirators, life support, and there's a reason I made each of you keep extra bags of blood stored here. Well, except Question..."

"Paranoid... cough cough... paranoid..." Dick joked.

"Am I paranoid? Or is it that you just refuse to see?" Question responded coolly.

"cough... paranoid... cough cough..." Barbara agreed.

"Question isn't my responsibility, however, as allies he and Huntress /are/ allowed to have their medical care taken care of here at the Batcave. Since ventilators are in short supply during a mass outbreak of either pandemic flu, sars or any other respiratory disease, we have life support including ventilators here at the batcave." Batman quickly got the others attention back on the lesson. "Now, who knows what a cytokine storm is...?"

The clueless look on the three youth's faces amused Yoruichi.

"oh boy... this is gonna take awhile." Huntress facepalmed.

"Don't tell them the answer." Batman told her. "They have to not only learn this, they have to be able to remember it accurately on reflex."

Yoruichi privately decided she liked this "Batman" character. Though he was as serious as Soifon was, he did understand and believe in a lot of the things that ninjas tended to, and being a child of that lifestyle, Yoruichi rather considered Batman a modern colleague and good company to have while she recovered. She'd lay odds and a captain's entire monthly paycheck on Batman having been trained by Ninjas at some point.

An alarm went off in the Batcave, and the monitor revealed a robbery by Mister Freeze currently in progress. "Alright, suit up, we'll finish this tomorrow night. I'm going to give each of you a folder of information on different biological and chemical hazards and I expect you to be able to recite the information back to me in three days time without looking at the paper."

Yoruichi returned to her studying of the news, determined to learn as much as she could about her surroundings and find any clues as to Ichigo's location. She was quietly keeping track of how long it took them to get back though, this group was useful in accomplishing her retrieval of Ichigo.

* * *

Ichigo groaned in the medical bed, his eyes creeking open rather painfully. A woman with a hawk like helmet clasped under her arm was leaning over him. "Easy." She said quietly. "Its the middle of the night... I'll get the medic on duty."

"My head..." Ichigo groaned. "I think I'm gonna be sick..." Ichigo doubled over the side of the medical bed.

The woman thrust a basin into his hands. Ichigo gratefully let his stomach empty itself. Not that there was much in there.

Ichigo lay back, head still disoriented and swimming. The woman got up and hurried out of the room, and Ichigo felt himself fading to black.

* * *

Grimmjow had found himself a place to sleep off his bruises. It was about twenty miles away from Metropolis. The city was behind the hill the base was built into. His eye was just about swollen shut, his ribs, diaphram, and shoulders were black and blue. Despite this, he'd managed to evict the previous occupant of his hidey hole, of all things a talking Gorilla. Sputtering in rage, the talking ape had been forcibly booted from the cache site Grimmjow was taking over. He then opened his special garganta with the huge brass knuckle /thing/ that Szayel and Aizen had invented. Tousen hurried through with six adjuchas, Halibel, Starrk, Lilinette, Mila Rose, Apache, and Sunsun. "Right. Sunsun, you and I scout the area." Halibel told the snake woman. "You six..." she told the adjuchas. "Stand guard and stay out of sight!"

"Why's she get to go?" Apache whined.

"You're too noisy." Halibel replied. "We need stealth today Apache. Save your strength for if battle erupts!" The two of them hurried off.

"The rest of us have to turn this place into a decent base." Tousen sighed. "This is not going to be easy, exploring a brand new dimension will require a basecamp thats as tight as a drum."

"Agreed." Starrk replied. "Grimmjow, you're injured, go back and feed then come back and get some sleep. Lilinette, you take first watch."

Grateful for the chance to feed and heal up, Grimmjow left through the garganta and ran for Los Noches as fast as he could to get healed up for round two with that flying caped freak he'd fought earlier. Seriously, no human should be that fast, fly that well, or be that strong.

But Grimmjow would see Superman again. A demonic grin spread on his face as he scampered through the passage between worlds. And /next/ time, he wouldn't come out of it with his pride as bruised as his eye!

* * *

Grodd grumbled in aggravation in the bushes, spying on the base and the odd people now moving in it. That was his metropolis hideout! He smirked, pulling out a small remote control and pushed the button.

A blast of psychic energy screeched through Tousen's mind, the other arrancars screamed in pain around him. Then BOOM! The base exploded. Medical and hydroponics equipment, as well as all of Grodd's stores of technology burned.

Tousen grabbed Lilinette and Apache, Stark grabbed Mila Rose, and the five of them dove into the Garganta with the flames from the explosion licking at their heals. Tousen threw up a barrier into the Garganta mouth. Angry cursing was coming from Lilinette and Apache's direction. "God damnit." Mila Rose looked like she wanted to kill.

* * *

Grodd smirked and hobbled off into the forest. He knew how to recreate everything in that base. But now the enemy that had attacked him would not be able to use the technology in it against him.

* * *

"Damn! Its a total write off." Mila Rose surveyed the damage two hours later when they'd finally gotten the fires under control. Tousen had had to use an ice kidou, which melted in the flames and doused them. "Aizen-sama's not going to like this."

"What's happened here?" Halibel and Sunsun appeared in a burst of sonido.

"The person Grimmjow stole this base from just blew it up, and made our job much harder." Tousen sighed. "I'll need to send for additional resources. But first we need to conceal this wreckage. If the man who landed punches hard enough to break Grimmjow's ribs sees this damage, he will certainly come to investigate. We may be able to take him, we may not, we can't know that because we're new here. I'll also need gigai for us, we have to hide. Grimmjow can be our backup but..."

"If we're going under cover can I be Starrk's daughter?" Lilinette asked hopefully.

"It would make sense why?" Tousen leaned down to towsel Lilinette's hair paternally.

"Then I want Halibel to be my mommy!" Lilinette snickered, kicking Starrk in the balls.

HURK! Starrk doubled over, trying to recover from the kick, only Lilinette kicked him over so that his face landed in Halibel's clevage. "Kiss mommy daddy!" Lilinette sneered.

Tousen couldn't see what was going on, but the yells of protest and the punching noises that ensued told him that whatever it was had provoked outrage from Mila Rose and Apache.

"Can I be your big sister Lilinette?" Asked Sunsun hopefully, a fake sweet expression on her face.

"Only if you promise not to hide your face behind your sleeve like that, it makes you look like a vindictive little bitch." Lilinette replied casually.

Apache and Mila Rose burst out laughing. Sunsun forced a smile. She had another reason for doing that. She didn't want others to see the snake fangs in her mouth. So she covered her mouth when she laughed. Still, it often got her teased by the other females.

* * *

Grodd wobbled over to the door of Ultra Humanite's hideout. "Humanite! Hey I need a hand here!"

Ultra Humanite peered out the viewing hole, then let Grodd in. He pulled a bottle of wine from the fridge, sliced up some bread and cheese, and sat Grodd down with the medkit, fixing his wounds while they ate and Grodd told his entire sorry tale.

"Alright, you have a hideout in Gotham?"

"No the Justice League took it last week." Grodd growled angrily.

"I'm going to go find us some reinforcements in the morning." Ultra Humanite sighed. "Nearest villain hideout to ours is Copperhead's and /he's/ doing a bid in Strykers."

"Damn, hope we don't have to range to get some help."

"We won't... focus on recovering your wounds and getting some rest. I've got some favors to call in." Humanite pushed his new glasses up his nose.

"hey... is it true that Batman made a grant in your name in order to drive Luthor crazy?"

"Only for letting him free. No offense to Luthor, but he can be rather annoying. And anyone who dislikes opera I find to be beneath me." Ultra Humanite chuckled. "Besides, you and I share something in common, a love of culture and intellect. I just take it a little further than you and will do anything for the sake of furthering the education of the masses. Look at that toy I 'improved' for Flash last Christmas. Instead of making farting noises it tells the story of the Nutcracker. I hear even into the spring it was a favorite with the children that it went to." Humanite sighed, picking up the empty food tray and letting Grodd savor the wine. He brought it to the kitchen and then returned for his own glass. "Batman simply asked what it would take for me to sabotage Luthor and let him go."

"So you could have asked him for anything huh, even to kiss your boots."

"Perhaps, but Batman seems to have a cultural appreciation almost on par with ours." Humanite sighed. "Now, those burns, what attack made them. You were outside of your base when you let the device off right?"

"yes, there was only one invader but then I discovered that it was a takeover when two more people I hadn't seen go in came out of it. I thought wrecking as much as I could would be a good precaution." He sighed. "Half man, half cat, and from what I saw in the skies above Metropolis this afternoon /fully/ capable of taking on Superman."

"I'll help you give them hell Grodd, but we need some backup. Sinestro /owes/ me a favor and so does Luthor." Humanite sighed. "Copperhead's in the can but... I think I might be able to give Killer Croc a little incentive... we need brawn to reinforce our brains. I haven't seen Solomon Grundy in awhile..."

"He's dead." Grodd sighed. "He gave his life helping Doctor Fate save the world. At least a year ago. The justice league buried him. I used GPR to probe the gravesite, he's down there."

"Damn, Grundy probably would have been a good match for the intruder." Sighed Grodd in disappointment. "Think we can get bizzaro..."

"Naw, too stupid. Grundy at least knew how to bargain." Muttered Humanite irritably.

The two supervillains sighed, drawing up lists of who they wanted to ask to help and splitting a very good bottle of wine. There were irritated mutterings and grumbles of disgust coming from their kitchen long into the night, then finally at one in the morning Grodd wobbled over to the couch, thoroughly intoxicated and passed out.

* * *

Ogichi had a problem. "Damnit this isn't good." He muttered.

"What is?" Zangetsu asked.

"Ichigo's connection to his body is rusting and I'm gonna go into heat in about a week. If we don't take care of both problems by then..." Ogichi's face turned faintly red at the cheeks.

"Heat?"

"I haven't even figured out how to broach it to King yet either." Ogichi groaned. "Man... Zangetsu whatever I do in that state of mind... I don't fucking mean it."

Zangetsu chuckled a bit. "so... what does this 'heat' entail..." He fully intended to tease Ogichi till his whole face turned red.

Zangetsu didn't get the chance as a figure flickered into being in their world. The man had green skin and orange eyes and wore a blue cape. Zangetsu turned his head slowly to meet the figure's eyes. Then he drew his blade and pointed it at the man. The man's eyes widened. "SHO." Zangetsu cast the weakest hado, which Ichigo had only learned the week before, and he blew backwards and out of Ichigo's head.

"Who or what the heck was that." Ogichi asked, peering around Zangetsu. "Was that man green?"

"A telepath being nosy. But he doesn't belong here. All Zanpakuto attempt to protect their owner's world from invasion. I am no different."

* * *

J'on rocked back, using his ability to levitate to right himself. He was shoved back into the wall and heard a very loud, angry voice in his head. _Doncha got any sense of privacy mister nosey?_ The first mental voice was raspy, almost echoing and had a smug, superior air that reminded J'on of some of the super villains he'd fought.

_Enough Ogichi. You're his inner hollow, you're not obligated to make a comment. _The other voice was a deep baritone. _Injured or not, that telepath wasn't invited and he had /no/ cause to enter Ichigo's world. Therefore, this and any time he comes in without Ichigo's permission I will do as all zanpakuto do and repel him. He got off light, Hyourinmaru I know for a fact does not just give a light swat at intruders._

"you okay J'on?" Asked Superman, looking worriedly from Ichigo to J'on.

"There are two entities protecting the boy's mind, they were offended at my intrusion, considered it rude. I could hear them talking for a moment. I heard the boy's name, Ichigo, and the name of one of the voices, Ogichi."

Batman strode in, a long bleeding slice on his cheek. He was holding a rag to it and went immediately for the disinfectant and something to suter it with.

"What happened to you?" Superman demanded with an arched eyebrow.

"Mister Freeze decided that his freeze ray wasn't enough, threw suriken of ice at my face." Batman growled.

"How... inventive..." J'on rolled his eyes at that. "WE could use some help. What do you make of an entity in the head of a boy named Ichigo when the entity is named "Ogichi?""

"hmm?" Batman looked up from where he was trying to stop the bleeding with a quik clot dressing. "Obviously an alternate personality but part of the host mind."

"What about two personalities in a kid's head?" Superman asked.

"Possible. Since I've been giving your guys lectures in disaster response, why don't you give me more Data." Batman smirked while J'on moved to work on cleaning his friend's wound. Whatever this ice projectile of Freeze's, it must have been /very/ sharp. He could tell by the clean cut of the wound. Dull blades tended to rip the skin unevenly, making closing the wound difficult. Sharp blades left clean skin edges.

* * *

"This meeting of the Captains, Lieutenants, and Vizards will come to order." Yamamoto said quietly. "Take note..." Sasakibe was taking the minutes for the meeting. "Also present are Urahara Kisuke, former captain of squad twelve and Kurosaki Isshin, former captain of squad three. The two are to be listed in the minutes as on extended leave."

"Where's Yoruichi-sama?" Soifon demanded as soon as it was time to say something.

"Sucked into what we believe to be a Garganta to an alternate universe." Urahara replied grimly.

"This is to discuss a chase team to retrieve former Captain Yoruichi Shihouin and Shinigami Daiko Ichigo Kurosaki." Shinji told Soifon.

"We need high level fighters capable of being autonomous and taking on multiple arrancar and adjuchas level enemies. However, we're stuck in a bit of a bind." Urahara sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "We can't spare more than one captain and lieutenant at the moment because Aizen will almost certainly have been behind taking Ichigo out of the picture to make an opening. As it is, the vizards that don't go will be helping to shore up our ranks."

"Whaaat? No WAY!" Hiyori growled. "Put me in eleventh with Kenpachi, I'm not going back to squad twelve with that freak in charge of it!" She jabbed a finger at Kurotsuchi.

"I'm as much a freak as he is..." Kenpachi chuckled. "You sure you want to come to my squad?"

"you're more my type of freak!" Hiyori grinned impishly.

Kenpachi returned the grin. "is that so... I won't go easy on a former egghead lieutenant though. But if you help entertain Yachiru when she wants to play you can come. Just don't feed her any candy."

"Ahahahahahahaha! Fang-chan do you like hide and seek or tag?" Yachiru asked cheerfully.

Soifon sputtered in protest. "you mean..."

"She jumped in to try to rescue Ichigo." Byakuya replied. "There's a good chance she's alive on the other side. But we have no idea what awaits us there. I'm in charge of the chase team. You aren't going because you're too close to her."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Demanded Soifon.

"You mean the noises I heard last time we were working on the Karakura Barracks wasn't you screaming Yoruichi's name in the throws of sexual release?" Byakuya had begun to tease his colleagues more often lately.

"How DARE you!" Soifon snapped, a single provocation away from punching Byakuya.

"She simply means you can't be impartial Soifon..." Isshin replied. "I'm not going for the same reason. My son went through there, and I don't trust my judgement when it comes to his safety versus the mission. Hey clownface, show Soifon what you found, then Unohana will do her bit."

Kurotsuchi pushed a button on the projector remote. "Although the space in the sky above Karakura town seems solid, there is a depression, almost a crator, in the space time fabric where Kurosaki and Shihouin went through. Much like a black hole, too close and you'll get pulled in. However we believe we may be able to open a cross dimensional senkaimon routed through this point to the place that Kurosaki is located."

"And for that reason I've asked Kuchiki-taichou to put together a chase team. The vizards, because they can handle any medical issues that might arise from Ichigo's inner hollow, have chosen three representatives. Ichigo's friends are going, as are Rukia, Renji, and Kuchiki-taichou. Kon will be going with them in Ichigo's body, which he /will/ need fairly soon. Once contact is established safely with the other world they'll send a signal, and video, back to us in the soul society. They will need to get all the information they possibly can. From there we will establish a covert safehouse capable of housing up to twelve. /If/ its feasible every captain and lieutenant will be asked to become passingly familiar with the other world. Komamura, Hisagi and Yamada Hanatarou are to be put on standby for an emergency." Yamamoto finished.

"We have a ticking clock." Unohana added. "An analysis of Kon's health in Ichigo's body shows that Ichigo's connection to his mortal form is fading. We have three days to get his body near enough to him or Ichigo will end up being a full shinigami, permanently. As it is, his soul chain will be weak once Kon gets there, the enemy could easily finish what the dimensional rift started /even/ if we save him. But even being on the same dimensional plane as Ichigo should prevent anything dangerous to Ichigo's health as long as he takes time to rest. But there's more... Shinji tells me within the next year or so a piece of vizard power currently latent will activate in Ichigo, care to explain?"

"Right, vizards combine the traits of shinigami and hollow, as you know." Shinji grinned. "Unfortunately, when it comes to reproductive systems, we get more from hollows than Soul Reapers. We go into heat, the really higher level ones of us actually become hermaphroditic for a time, female organs an all an even able to have kids. Hell, last time it happened to me I had Hachigen sedate me, which is now standard for all unattached vizards in our group. Don't want one of us really goin wild." He got an irritated look on his face, probably embarassment. "Unless there's only wilderness on the other side, then I dunno, maybe Kurosaki wouldn't mind but... eh... beside the point. We were monitoring Ichigo's health for the past year or so, and we expect this part of his inner hollow will activate in the next six months to a year. We can't have that happening on strange ground where our buddy could be taken advantage of ya know?" Shinji quirked a brow. "So we got two ticking clocks, and I can tell ya right now, if we don't get to him before his soul chain snaps, its likely to throw him over the edge. The weaker that chain gets, the more likely his inner hollow is gonna go into heat."

"We're leaving as soon as this meeting is over. This is considered a priority one emergency." Byakuya said quietly. "Arrangements have already been made. Our gigai are waiting for us. Lets go..." Byakuya turned to leave. Rukia and Renji followed him. "Ichigo's friends are waiting for us at the senkaimon." He told Rukia, handing her and Renji each a large, internal frame camping backpack. (1)

Kon took the pack Byakuya handed him, hefting it onto his shoulders and buckling it on. Shinji, Hachigen, and Kensei hurried to catch up, each with a bag of their own. "Hey..."

"Hey..." Rukia said shyly. She knew that Kensei and Shinji had once been captains. But she didn't /know/ them.

"Lil Bya, lookin forward to workin with ya." Shinji offered a handshake to Byakuya.

"Former Captain Hirako, likewise, I hear my grandfather was a colleague of yours."

"Yeah, stern fellow he was, liked his tea, his quiet, and his koto music. Never could get him into jazz, even though it was all the rage in the soul society at the time." Shinji shook his head. "Very good with all the traditional noble's crafts. Very subtle sense of humor. That sort of guy... I could respect him, just not work with him."

"Is that so?" Byakuya got a small, almost smile on his face. "Come on, we're shinigami, we can go at a human's pace later." He took off with flash step, the others following. A brief stop at the gatehouse to get their gigai and equipment and they were joining the group at the senkaimon designated solely for the mission.

"Everybody ready?" Orihime asked cheerfully when Byakuya touched down.

"Yes, you have your pack?"

"Yep! All of us are ready to go!"

"Very good, we're going to be doing side along flash step. Not only are we on a time limit but we have a lot of distance to cover in the dangai." Byakuya told her, "Rukia, take Orihime, Renji, Uryu, Shinji, Sado, I'll take Kon as Ichigo needs his body first and foremost." (2)

Byakuya's eyes focused on the senkaimon as it opened, Hell butterflies flew over to them, several nestling in his, Rukia's and Renji's hair, tagging along to provide their aid when they reached the other side.

"The Dangai is online and has reached the other world successfully." Rin said into the Hell butterfly channel. "Akon and I will be taking turns on the line to watch for any problems. Kurotsuchi-fukutaichou bids you luck."

"Thanks." Renji sighed. "We're gonna need it."

Then they took off through the open senkaimon. Byakuya needed to get a good start, this could take as long as a whole day to accomplish. An entire day in the dangai was not one that Byakuya was looking forward too. He was just glad the restrictive current was turned off and the cleaners diverted.

As the hours wore on, the blackness began to sparkle around them in a way that Byakuya knew it wouldn't in a regular senkaimon. They ran as fast as they could go, but in the blur of the walls, Byakuya saw strange glimpses of other worlds. A place where ninjas dominated the land, a place where strange creatures lived and fought alongside humans, a boy sitting at his desk with a black journal and a macabre, crow like creature eating an apple and standing behind him as he wrote names in it, a place where demons and shinigami with strange glasses and eyes did battle for the souls of man, a place where giant robotic... cyndrilical creatures perpetually invaded and a dedicated group of humans and one alien fought to protect their planet, a world where men flew among the stars, could teleport from one place to another faster than any senkaimon and create worlds and games of animated, solid light...

all of this flashed across the sides of the dangai passage they were in. A world in computer code, a world where the last shinigami trained humans and humans who could transform into weapons, a world that was ocean with only a few islands across its surface dominated by ships, navies and pirates, a world of mutations and magic and mechanical powers and struggles by their wielders for basic human rights. There was just NO END to them!

They plunged through the odd looking dangai area, which slowly became more and more and more blue until...

Two streaks, one cloaked in green, another in blue, shot past them and suddenly...

WOOOOOOSSSHHH!

Byakuya grinned hugely as he took a deep deep lungful of air on a new world. Stars glittered above them, below a city with the biggest sky scrapers Byakuya had ever seen glistened with lights brighter than the ones in the sky. He caught sight of a large tower with an L shaped light on it, and a bronze colored tower with a globe that said "Daily Planet" and had damage in the side of it, a huge gaping hole. Byakuya was pretty sure he knew where to start searching. These two towers were particularly distinctive, enough so that he could use them as reference points for navigation if he had to.

Kon peered behind them. "uh... Byakuya... I think only half of us made it here."

"WHAT?" Byakuya immediately reached for Rukia's spirit ribbon. "holy... she's over two hundred miles away from us! Renji too!"

Byakuya turned, Shinji and Hachigen emerged from the dangai with Sado... "WE'VE BEEN SPLIT!" Byakuya cried in alarm. "Rukia's spirit ribbon is at least two hundred miles from us."

"Call them on the hell butterfly. We can find her and they us Byakuya, there is no need to panic. We need to get down on the ground."

"Yeah, or have you forgotten our fine giant friend..." Sado looked like he was going to be airsick. Kon was already throwing up.

"Right, the pier below us." Byakuya began to descend, clearly disconcerted at the circumstances they'd arrived in and a world that seemed so... normal... so like the human world back home!

Byakuya took about three steps on terra firma when he heard a noise from the water. He whirled. A dolphin was looking at him from the water. "You can see me?" He moved to the water, trying to figure out if this creature staring at him was a threat. There was something odd about it. As if it /knew/ he was unusual.

The dolphin chattered at Byakuya's question, it opened its mouth as though it wanted food.

"We have no food to spare, and none that you can eat safely." Byakuya said quietly. "We're new in this land, and we need shelter. Tell me grinning one, do you understand?"

The dolphin bobbed its head and swam off before darting under a warehouse that jutted out over the water, probably a loading dock for ships. A gruff looking man with blonde hair and a hook for a hand was sitting by a camp fire inside of it. "Strangers huh Felicity?" The dolphin chattered happily. "You can stay by my fire until daybreak, after that leave me alone." The man grunted.

"you can see us?"

"yeah, I can see that most of you are ghosts too. Your sort has created quite a bit of trouble in my home as of late so more of you are not appreciated."

"Trouble?"

"A half a dozen masked, ghostly beasts broke into my city last week, stole our technology and then wreaked havoc before disappearing again. I tracked them down here."

"Did they have holes in their chests by any chance?"

"yeah... right in the sternum. They were powerful enough they killed thirty of my best guards. I'm an Atlantean, we're a warrior race. My royal guards are no slackers!" The man's mood was dark and his reiatsu seething with barely contained wrath.

"You're lucky, we hunt those beasts for a living and we /came/ here looking for their boss." Byakuya said quietly. "Perhaps we should help each other."

"Only as long as it serves to protect my people. Once the battle starts suiting your ends more than mine you're on your own and this is the only warning you're going to get on that score." The man said sourly. "I'm Arthur, King of Atlantis, here on the surface they call me Aquaman. A friend of mine will be coming to join me in the morning, Doctor Fate may be able to give you better sanctuary than I. Atlanteans don't like spending too long on the surface and we don't trust outsiders."

"Sounds like an under water soul society." Muttered Sado.

"Very well Arthur O-sama, we are grateful for your assistance and will not trouble you." Byakuya settled his pack on the ground and sat on it while Arthur ladeled up fresh wakame soup for them, seasoned with wasabi paste to warm the stomach.

This was going to be a very long night.

* * *

1. I have one of these backpacks, they're strong, they hold a lot, including a sleeping bag, a tarp, rope, food, camp stove and fuel, water ecetera. They're also made with hip and waist supports to minimize muscle strain. Although an external frame backpack could carry more and be converted into a temporary seat or rain cover, its very uncomfortable for the hips.

2. As I'm writing this bit, I have the Stargate themesong playing in my headphones. :D I'll put captain jack's themesong on once they're in the dangai.


	3. Ichirin no Hana

Notes: Okay, dinner's in the oven (home made tuna pockets! YUM!), time to work on my fic and hash out three things.

First of all, the parts with Ichigo and Yoruichi are still early morning timeline day one. The parts with the retrieval team are four days ahead of them. That would put the attack of the adjuchas on Atlantis to three days before the fic began.

Thats two things, now the third is...

MINECRAFT HUMOR RULES! SKY, CAPTAIN SPARKLES AND YOGSCAST ARE HILARIOUS AS ALL HELL!

In the immortal words of Thousand Foot Krutch, lets get this thing shaking like a DISCO BALL!

* * *

Doctor Fate was due to come and have a look at their visitor in a couple of hours. Sheiyera and Vixen were checking on Ichigo every couple of hours, for that is the name that J'on managed to pick out of the boy's scattered unconscious fever dreams. They had patrol starting about the same time that Fate was due to arrive. J'on had been assigning them repeatedly with John Stewart. Presumably to try to force the three of them to bond or some crazy psychological shit. All it really did was make Sheiyera want to beat her head against the nearest wall.

She poked her head into the infirmary for the umpteenth time, and noted the boy's hair had turned white. "Huh?"

The white was spreading all over his body. "Trippy." Vixen commented. "I'll go get the medic! Keep an eye on him. I don't like that he's going as white as Grundy!"

The League's head medic hurried in, a couple of curious onlookers poking their heads in. Sheiyera noted Etrigan, Booster Gold, and Zatanna peering around the door frame of the infirmary.

The medic checked him over with a scanner. "Amazing, this energy is only a few percentage wavelengths difference from a demon's. Its not the same though. But very similar."

Etrigan took a position against the wall of the infirmary to listen in. The man glowered at the strange pale youth.

"I'm a hollow stupid." The boy growled. "This isn't even all of me, the real Ichigo's exhausted, tired, has a headache the size of rhode island and is irritable as hell and wants that nosy green shithead to stop prying into his head."

Sheiyera chuckled, realizing he meant J'on. "Well we had no freakin clue who you were..." Etrigan snickered. "How were we supposed to try to find... oh I dunno, your next of kin."

"Karakura Town Japan, and though King's dad knows all about me, it might be better to contact Urahara. What I wanna know is who the hell are alla you!" Ogichi looked around, confused, King's memories and knowledge didn't include masked freaks!

"My name's Sheiyera Hall." Hawkgirl tended to go by her real name more often than not now.

"Vixen!" Vixen chimed up.

"Etrigan, the young lady keeping watch outside is Zatanna, and the /oaf/ stickin his nose where it doesn't belong is Booster Gold and his robot /pet/ Skeets!" Etrigan looked fairly irritated with Booster. "Whom i'm NOT SURE WHY WE KEEP IN THE LEAGUE!" He glared irritably at Booster, who was outside the door, only a sliver of him visible. "God damn showboater. You just watch, he'll only start takin this seriously when he gets hisself a girlfriend!"

"And how can /you/ be so sure? You're a demon." Zatanna pointed out.

"When yeh got somethin ter protect, suddenly bein a hero means somethin." Etrigan replied cooly. "Just watch, when he gets hisself a damsel to sweep off her feet Booster'll be more gold and less BAFFOON!" Etrigan sniggered that last bit.

"King believes that having something to protect makes you fight harder." Ogichi said quietly. "I quite agree. But I'm his instinct so that doesn't account for much."

"What's that mean?" Sheiyera asked, head tilting at Ogichi a bit.

"What it sounds like. You don't know what being a "hollow" means do you?" Ogichi smirked. "We're the instinctive selves of our people. That primative self that will do anything to survive, that clings on to the slightest foothold of life even when things look grim and just won't quit. When I first split from King's mind, I was pretty savage. I tried my hardest to dominate and take him over... now... I don't know anymore. The soul society where our friends live is at war. There's plenty of violence to satiate me in war... and yet I feel colder..."

"Thats war alright." Muttered Etrigan. "Yeh feel alive and yet dead all at once."

"Yeah..." Ogichi said quietly. He looked disheartened. "listen... King is gonna be missed a lot, and he's weak right now. I just wanted to make sure he wasn't gonna be taken advantage of in his sleep. Please help him find his friends when he wakes up? He's gonna be really upset if they aren't there." Ogichi's black eyes turned kinda dull.

"You're hiding something aren't you?" Sheiyera asked Ogichi, trying to figure out exactly what this odd fellow was about.

"Something private to King and not relevant to the situation." Ogichi replied. "I don't answer to you, as long as he can beat me into submission in the world in his head, I only answer to him." Ogichi lay back down and closed his eyes. The white drained away, revealing Ichigo's normal form.

* * *

"Interesting..." Batman mused as Sheiyera recounted the tale just before she woke up. "Etrigan, what's your assessment?"

"This entity that took the boy over was demon like, but not a demon." Etrigan replied. "Even ones like me, the change from human to demon is far less subtle. The color drained from the boy and his eyes changed, thats all. No flash of fire or light, no flare or..."

"This boy is not only not human, his soul is split." Doctor Fate concluded his 'checkup' of the orange head lying there on the medical bed. "I have not encountered his sort before. He is a divine being, but the divine and the mortal meet in him. There is more, the boy's mortality is waning."

"you mean he's dying?" Zatanna sat up straight in her chair, a look of alarm on her face.

"Not in the physical sense, by our standards he is both alive and dead at once. He must have a body somewhere. But my guess is separation from it for too long would kill him, rendering him a full spirit and not inbetween living and dead as he is now."

"Alright..." Zatanna sighed. "I'll arrange a search party in metropolis. Surely something..."

"Superman is on patrol at the moment, go see him first. His X-ray vision may help you. The sort capable of projecting the soul from the body need a secure spot to put the body or somebody to guard and tend it."

Batman moved to the nearest console and hit a few keys. "No missing persons in Metropolis with red or orange hair."

"Doesn't mean someone isn't missing him." Zatanna sighed. "Mister Terrific needs to test his new scanning program. So lets see if he and Superman can give me a hand."

"I don't think we're gonna find anyone." Batman said quietly.

Zatanna gave him a dirty look as she strode out the door. "PESSIMIST!" Batman smirked. Zatanna was an ally he was rather fond of. He couldn't handle magic, not well at least. She covered that end for him and shored up a very pronounced weakness in his skills.

Then to, Batman's attempts at magic usually created a very spectacular explosion or shockwave and nothing more substantial. In the end he'd given up, and instead worked on snapping up as much salvaged Nth metal from the thenegarian invasion as he could to make gadgets with.

* * *

"That's so weird..." Lois was looking out the observation deck of the daily planet building, repaired in a single night and morning by the League's ever efficient engineers. But then, superpowered builders tended to get the job done far faster than non.

She and Clark were looking up at the clouds that seemed to be clinging to the sky over the harbor. In them, blue and green lightning crackled. Jimmy was trying to get some nice photos, but you couldn't really get good shots of lightning with the camera he had. "damn... I need higher resolution." he muttered.

Lois pulled out a pair of binoculars. "Hmmm..." She peered through them. "There's a current through those clouds but I don't see anyone or anything causing it. Here, have a look Clark... Jimmy keep trying to get some good photos, the weather guys are gonna eat this up." She handed the binoculars over to Clark Kent.

"Aye aye captain!" Jimmy said cheerfully. "i'm gonna need another roll at this rate though."

"Interesting light show... thanks for these Lois." Clark indicated the binoculars. "So strange... those colors are so pale..." He mused, looking at the cloud formation through them. Sure enough, nobody and nothing in those clouds, and a slow circular current. "The good news is thats too slow to be a tornado cloud. I've seen quite a few out in Kansas, this isn't a super cell."

"There's no water in that cloud." The meteorologist came running out. "GUYS! Its a cloud without water! NOAA just got us their satilite assessment and local doppler confirms. That cloud has no water!"

"Then what's making the lightning?" Lois mused. "Isn't water kinda required for lightning?"

"Actually we don't fully understand just where lightning comes from Ms. Lane." The meteorologist said quietly.

"Alright I've got work to do, keep an eye on it guys..." Clark slipped off to change. He needed a better look at that cloud.

* * *

Deadman wasn't the only spirit drawn to that cloud above metropolis. Ghosts of all strengths and sorts were coming to look, drawn by some inexorable force. He lay back in the odd cloud over metropolis and sighed blissfully in relaxation. "oooooh, this is wonderful."

"Huh? Who the hell are you?" Superman had flown up into the cloud to have his look around. Startled that he hadn't seen all the ghosts with the binoculars.

"You can see me?" Deadman blinked. "i'm a blinkin ghost and you're still alive and you can..." He trailed off, sniffing the cloud material a bit. "hey, this isn't water vapor! This is somethin spiritual! Oh what the heck I'm not complaining! LIVING PEOPLE CAN SEE ME HERE! YIPPIE!"

"mmmmmm..." another ghost floated dreamily by them. "Whatever this mist is, it feels /amazing./ I feel so relaxed and energized. Like going to a fine fiiiineee spa!"

"you mean this weird cloud is affecting you guys somehow?" Superman blinked, somewhat taken aback by the ghosts' behavior.

"Close yer eyes and breathe in!" Deadman all but chirped in delight. Now normally he'd be a bit on the morose side, after all, he /was/ dead. But something about this cloud reminded Boston Brand of a good strong cup of tea, they were both calming and invigorating all at once.

What the heck, Doctor Fate had taught Superman some good breathing exercises. So he floated in the cloud for a bit in a meditative posture, taking good deep lungfuls. "Odd, you're right, I do kinda feel sedated... don't spend too long in here..." he frowned. "Heeeey! I recognize you now! Long time no see Deadman!"

"Bingo!" Brand grinned hugely. "Aw I haven't felt this great since I was alive!"

"i'm gonna go look deeper." Superman told him. "Enjoy this if you find it relaxing, just be careful."

He flew up into the cloud's center. Within it was a darker portion of sky and what looked like a depression with a jagged hole in the center.

A familiar figure was meditating in the depression, faint green light rippling over his pale form. "Spectre?" Superman blinked.

"I'm holding this opening stable..." Spectre said quietly. It was clear he was distracted. "You had better try to close it and put things right... I can hold it for weeks, maybe months, but eventually the energy its discharging will dump itself down into the ocean off the shores of Metropolis, sending energy surges and a water surge much like a storm surge down on the city. Many may be empowered by the energy surging from this rift, good and evil alike, but many more will be harmed."

"I'll get Doctor Fate..."

"not here... your comlink..." Spectre was trying to concentrate, and it was making speaking difficult. Superman could see the effort the angel was putting out on his face. When he tried the com, Superman found the cloud was blocking the signal.

"Alright, I'll go take this to the league." Superman took one last look at the hole and then sank a bit down to the familiar figure in the circus costume. "Deadman!"

"yeah?" The ghost looked up from his floating, almost as if he was lying in a soft bed of... well... cloud material.

"Stand guard over Spectre but don't bother him." Superman told Deadman. "He's up in the center of the cloud holding back a dimensional rift from getting wider. Thats the source of all this and if the energy from the rift hits the ground the city's in trouble. Get him anything he says he needs just make sure he keeps holding that hole still!"

Deadman nodded and flew up higher towards where the angel was. He sat down in the odd cloud like material and waited.

* * *

Superman darted back down towards the Daily Planet building. "Anything up there?" Lois asked him, waving cheerfully at her boyfriend.

"Plenty, I'll head over to your place tonight and give you the scoop then okay? Or not... you might want to use your discretion on this one." Superman sighed, not sure how much of this would panic the public.

"Okay! I'll hold you to it!" Superman hurried off, finding a discrete place to contact the league.

Only to run into Zatanna in the lobby near the payphones. "Zatanna! I was just coming to find a magic user at the league."

"And I was coming to find you, we need your x-ray vision to look for someone that looks like our red headed visitor. You?"

"That cloud up above the city, the one sparking? There's a dimensional rift at the center and its being held back from causing potentially dangerous energy surges by Spectre."

"THE spectre? Superman do you know how rare it is to see the angel of vengeance?"

"Thats not all, the cloud material has attracted ghosts. It has some kind of sedating or calming effect on them. A friend of Batman's, codename Deadman, was drawn up there. Not only that, but all the ghosts there are visible. Most people can't see them normally right?"

"Yeah, there /are/ a few exceptions but for the most part ghosts can't be seen by most people. Psychics and magic users primarily are able to see them. Themiscyrans and Atlanteans have the ability as well but..."

"Greaaatttt..." Superman imagined Wonder Woman's reaction to Spectre. "I don't think Wonder Woman's been introduced to Spectre yet. And her last encounter with Deadman wasn't a good one."

"Ouch! Okay I'll do what I can but I need you to help me out a bit." Zatanna replied. "I've already gotten Mister Terrific to turn his new scanners to the city to see if he can help. Basically our visitor is able to astral project, leaving his body while he does. But he needs that body back or Doctor Fate says he's gonna be a ghost forever rather than a kid that's part spirit. We need to find where the kid hid his body /or/ who's taking care of it in his absence."

Superman winced. "I hate when ghosts and magic become involved, it always becomes too thorny." And painful.

"Thats why you have us magic users!" Zatanna said with a huge grin on her face.

Superman sighed, not looking forwards to the task or the explanation for /this/ mess. "Alright, I've got to start on patrol once I've contacted the league. I'll help you out."

Ten minutes of explaining the issue to Doctor Fate and J'on and Superman was darting up into the sky for his patrol.

* * *

Between Doctor Fate, and Wonder Woman Zatanna managed to get herself and Etrigan up to the rift zone to speak with Spectre.

The angel didn't reply when they addressed him. Doctor Fate frowned. "Its taking too much effort for him to speak. Let me..." He extended his hand, mumbling an incantation.

Instantly the strain on Spectre's face eased. "Thank you... I felt like Atlas the Titan for a minute there." Spectre sighed in relief.

"What is that thing?"

"A dimensional rift. A massive amount of spiritual energy is flowing out of it..." Doctor fate concentrated, gathering a bit of the pale blue energy into his hand. "This, this is what is pouring out. Zatanna I believe there's a containment case in the bag J'on sent with us. We need samples for analysis, hurry!"

"Whatever it is, its having an effect on us ghosts!" Deadman added. "I haven't felt this cheerful since before I died!"

Zatanna couldn't see the expression on Doctor Fate's face, but... he seemed pensive. She looked over at Wonder Woman, the most senior member present.

"I swear I've breathed this energy before." Wonder Woman frowned. "hmmm..." The princess' face was wrinkled up in thought. "TARTARUS! Thats it! This energy, its like a much cooler version of Tartarus' energy. I'm going to go call mother and see if she can offer some insight. Get analysis on..."

"its not Tartarus on the other side of that rift." Doctor Fate told her quietly. "But the energy feels similar. Spectre?"

"No, no signs of demons coming in and out." Spectre replied. "I'd have been attacked while guarding it if they'd tried."

"So who..."

Zatanna reached out to touch the rift gingerly.

"DON'T!" Wonder Woman hissed, "You might get sucked in!"

"Are you crazy girl?" Etrigan demanded.

"no... this... feels familiar..." Zatanna pushed her hand against the rubbery surface of the rift. She muttered an incantation, focusing all her senses on the barrier. "Yalper!" A simple word, "Replay."

A shadowy image of Ichigo and Grimmjow shot from the rift, shooting downwards towards metropolis, lining up with the newly patched hole on the Daily Planet building. The shadowy image of Grimmjow stood there gloating and laughing, drawing his sword and saying something, the words were silent as neither figure could speak.

"I can read lips, thats "Grind Pantera..."" Doctor Fate mused.

There was a burst of energy, whorls of mist gathering around Grimmjow. Then his body changed, becoming half cat, half human. Grimmjow then shot downwards after Ichigo.

"Wow..." Zatanna blinked. "Hey Etrigan, weren't we supposed to be trying to trace Ichigo's origins?"

"Yeah, along wiv Superman and that idiot scientist." Etrigan mused. "Looks like we found it!"

"I knew that energy felt familiar, Ichigo was dripping with it when he was in the infirmary."

"Ectoplasm perhaps?" Suggested Deadman sarcastically.

"What do you think this is, ghost busters?" Zatanna demanded. "Look, Deadman, you're gonna have to help Spectre when we leave. He can't move from this cloud because if he does it will send a surge of energy down on Metropolis. You helping Spectre here helps the city Superman is most attached to."

"Besides, after what happened /the last/ time we saw you?" Wonder Woman arched a cold eyebrow at him. "As far as I'm concerned you /owe/ us."

"But he was gonna kill you!"

"I'm immortal and invulnerable, not to mention Batman has a phobia of guns!" Snapped Wonder Woman. "Using his body to shoot a gun? Dispicable." She darted down from the cloud back towards the city, clearly annoyed.

"I deserved that. I was just trying to save her life."

"You're gonna have to tell me the story someday, but Deadman Batman has serious issues with guns. Even I've seen it. You notice he never uses a firearm, never carries one." Zatanna sighed. "Look, whatever went down I'm sorry Wonder Woman couldn't stay professional. Her temper is pretty legendary. But my best warning to you is never, ever, bring a gun around Batman. I know him better than Diana does. Of course, I knew him as John for twenty years... but what the heck."

"John? Really?" Deadman blinked in surprise.

"Yeah, John Doe."

"ouch." Deadman winced.

"We need to get these samples into containers AND BACK TO THE LAB." Doctor Fate said sternly. "We seem able to focus this energy and manipulate it." He pulled open a few vials and began collecting and concentrating the energy. It formed a pale blue liquid. Deadman looked nervously over at Spectre and then around at the others.

"Good luck." Spectre said quietly. "I have been ordered to keep this rift guarded and sealed. I cannot leave it but my mind can contact you if something happens."

"Ho boy, please tell me you're not a stiff! I was a lively irish guy when I was alive! I can't take quiet!"

"My host is Irish, and he's nowhere near as annoying as /you./" Spectre replied cooly.

"Way to boost a guy's spirits Green Riding Hood."

Zatanna inwardly facepalmed at this back and forth. Really, this guy was a contact of Batman's? She managed to fill several glass vials and bottles with the substance, which Fate promptly levitated outside of the cloud. From there he carefully eased them down to the Daily Planet building below. "oye!" Zatanna greeted Lois. "Got any day old newspapers you're not gonna use?"

"Plenty. Lemme get you a stack. Samples?"

"Yeah, this is the concentrated cloud material. The league's gonna do an analysis."

Doctor Fate eased himself down. "We're going to have the league bring some containment measures down. Sorry to have to borrow your balcony Ms. Lane."

"You're welcome. Need something to drink?"

"I could use some water." Zatanna replied. "Not much, just something to wet my throat."

"I got some four ounce bottles in the break room." Lois nodded and headed inside. She came back with a case of twenty four four ounce bottles of water and a stack of old newspaper. Etrigan and Zatanna each took two, gulped them down, and started wrapping up the vials and bottles in old newspaper. Jimmy poked his head out, taking a few snapshots with his camera of Zatanna expertly twisting the paper around the sample containers.

"What do you need to wrap them for anyway?" Lois was taking notes. "And /where/ did you learn to wrap like that? I should hire you to wrap presents for my family around christmas!" She joked.

"For starters the sample containers are glass, so the newspaper should cushion them in the case." Zatanna pointed out. "Its also an unknown substance. And a magic user, medium or psychic would be able to tell that this substance is potentially volitile. As for wrapping well... I learned to make paper birds for prop use when I was a child. I'm very good at making sure paper does what I want it. In this case, shock insulation."

"Ah, here we are." An Nth metal case was teleported in, and Fate levitated it carefully to the ground, the box wobbling wildly as it fought against his levitation spell. Zatanna then used her wand to carefully move the wrapped samples into the case as she finished them.

Lois scribbled away on her pad while they worked. Before long the case was packed with sealed, newspaper wrapped samples. "So how's this sound... the process of wrapping and packing the samples was quick, quiet, and efficient, levitation was used to minimize the chance of spillage or breaking containers. The visiting league members only stopped for a drink of water before hurrying the samples away to the lab for analysis."

"Quite accurate. Zatanna has the poise and confidence born of life lived on the stage." Doctor Fate seemed to smile under his helmet. "If she hadn't been a magician, she probably would have been a news girl like you."

"Aw shucks Fate, you're making me blush!" Zatanna giggled.

"Well its true." Lois told her. "You handled yourself quite well with me. Anyway, its been an interesting morning. But that cloud..." She shook her head. "There's something off about it."

"Its attracting a /lot/ of ghosts." Zatanna told her. "It seems to have a sedating and cheering effect on them. I mean seriously, its like they took antidepressants or tranquilizers or something."

"Ghosts are depressed?" Lois blinked.

"Duh, they're dead and they haven't passed on, isn't that enough to be depressed about?" Zatanna asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"I guess so."

"But you might want to leave that bit about ghosts out, because the spirit at the cloud's center is keeping the cloud from forming an energy surge that could hit the city. So keep people away from it." Zatanna told her.

"Thaaaaat, might be what Superman wanted me to use my discretion about. Alright, I'll let the dead rest in peace." Lois scratched the note about ghosts out of her notepad. "If that will help I mean."

"That spirit is concentrating very hard Ms. Lane, he should not be disturbed. If he loses his concentration it could send a surge down onto the city." Was Fate's parting warning before they teleported back up to the station.

* * *

The boom in the Justice League laboratory was heard three floors above and below the watchtower's analysis lab. The lab tech yelled at Booster Gold as he scooped up Skeets and ran. "oh boy, I'm in trouble."

"WHAT did you do?" It was four hours since they'd returned to the Watchtower. Etrigan walked out of the lab and grabbed Booster by the collar. "YOU ARROGANT SWAGGERING MORON!" Etrigan's face was covered in soot. "THAT EXPLOSION BURNED J'ON'S HAND! HE'LL BE ON THE INJURED LIST FOR WEEKS!"

"SORRY! Skeets thought he recognized the compound."

"Not good enough Booster. You're on cleaning duty." Martian Manhunter floated out of the lab, cradling his burned right hand with a pained expression on his face. It was excrutiating. J'on wasn't very happy with Booster at the moment.

Booster went white under his goggles. "Sorry sir..."

"You were just trying to help I know. But curiousity killed the cat." J'on told him curtly.

Zatanna poked her head into the lab. "oh boy." It was wrecked. Charred notes, broken bottles and equipment. "Was this from our samples?"

"Only from a half dozen of them. The substance needs to be moved to explosive containment." J'on winced in pain. "And this hand is going to be very painful for the next few weeks. I think it would be better if Batman handled our remaining samples."

"A sound idea." Batman strode in, surveying the damage. "A half dozen vials? Did this? That case you transported earlier, if it had exploded it could have leveled half a block."

"We'd better aprise Miss Waller of this discovery." J'on shook his head.

"not yet, she's military and diplomatic type. I don't want this being used as a weapon."

"I /am/ the Government's liason to the Justice League... I'd hope that you wouldn't think of leaving me out of the loop of a potential crisis." Waller pointed out. "So... any of you care to tell me what happened here?"

"An accident with some samples. It was an unknown non lethal substance that we were trying to identify. It came from those clouds above Metropolis."

"They aren't just in Metropolis anymore. I came to bring you that news actually, there's one over Gotham. The airforce was able to identify humanoid figures in the mist, very ghost like. Also, it causes major radio and compass outages near it. If you flew a javalin into that, you'd loose all navigation ability and planes are already being warned out of the area."

"They /are/ ghosts that those pilots saw." Zatanna told Waller. "They seem to be drawn to it, and it has some kind of sedating effect on them. Like chamomile times ten coupled with a good day at the spa. Normally in my work when I find a ghost, they're really morose and miserable. Who wouldn't be in their situation? But these ghosts felt almost... happy... when they were in that cloud. They were floating in the material like they were in a hot tub, and it made them appear to be semi solid."

Waller frowned. "So... what's in there besides ghosts?"

"A dimensional rift. There's a report that the first one, in Metropolis is being held back by Spectre, the angel of vengeance. He's holding back the energy that caused this explosion. While its not in this concentration in the clouds, if it hits the harbor it can cause stormsurge like waves." Batman told Waller. "In a major metropolitan area thats a huge hazard."

"But this other rift?"

"Something or someone would more than likely have to be holding that shut as well. There is one more thing, these rifts are traversible. We have the unconscious traveler through the first one, but his assailant escaped." Batman told Waller. "The boy's been drifting in and out of consciousness and he's likely to be in poor health for a few days more. What bothers me is that if there are two rifts, where's the impact from the other rift? Did a person come through that also? Are they injured? Or are they biding their time?"

Waller shuddered. "Keep me aprised. I have paperwork I have to do. And if I recall I'm supposed to have observer status on your meetings. I'd like to hear more about this incident. There's over a hundred physicists who's work could be revolutionized by a traversible interdimensional rift. It could revolutionize transport, trade, and most of all our understanding of our place in the universe. As for these samples, I need a list of the barriers someone would need to cross to weaponize it. Just in case some terrorist or supervillain gets the idea to turn it into a bomb. This was how much?"

"Half a dozen vials ma'am." Zatanna told her.

"That oaf Booster's robot, Skeets, thought he recognized the substance! As if a ROBOT made of metal could understand a spiritual substance like THAT!" snorted Etrigan.

"you don't think a robot could recognize a magical substance?"

"No, /hag/ of the US Army, I don't think a robot could. The damned idiot tried to access the sample. I want Booster banned from all decks that house laboratories and magical workshops! I will not have that /bull/ treating my study like a CHINA SHOP!" Etrigan snarled. "And look at J'on's hand! Look at that mess! He'll be on the injured list for weeks! Just riding a desk while the rest of us go down to fight because that OAF couldn't control his own familiar OR KEEP HIS HANDS TO HIMSELF!" Etrigan snarled. "Well?" He turned to Batman and J'on. "You two are seniors! Can't you do something about this?"

"The next senior member meeting is set for the dinner hour." Batman said quietly. He offered Amanda Waller the most polite glance he could. "Ms. Waller, my Butler will be doing the cooking tonight, and sending it up via the teleporters. Its a good hearty clam chowder. I hope you'll have some."

"I'll keep on this. At least we know my case and the clouds are linked." Zatanna sighed.

"yes, but I'm worried about this assailent that escaped Superman. I have some years experience working with US Mps. So I know a bit about police work. Enough to be conversant in it... I may be able to help." She smiled briefly at Zatanna. "You know, I brought my youngest son to one of your shows for his tenth birthday. His eleventh is in two months, if I brought you a top hat could you sign it for him?"

"Sure." Zatanna smiled. "He do magic tricks?"

"Quite a few." Waller smiled as she indicated they should leave. "he's gotten quite good a prestidigitation."

The two women walked down the corridor. "Card tricks huh? Tell you what, I'll take an hour or two out to teach him some good ones for his birthday."

"Really?" Waller smiled. "I'm sure he'd like that. He wants to get the sawing a person in half part down. But all he's done so far is ruin his stuffed animals." The look of amusement on her face was quite unlike her normally stern demeanor.

"Did I just see Booster covered in soot?" Wonder Woman asked them, striding down the corridor. "And did he come out of here?"

"Down that way, touched off an accident that burned J'on's hand. Etrigan's really mad." Zatanna added.

"oh boy." Wonder Woman hurried off. "Thanks for the warning!"

As they headed for the mess hall via the lift Wannabeast stepped in. "Going down?"

"yeah, the mess."

"I've got an assignment further down. Have fun ladies, I recommend the earl grey tea. I swear, if tea could kick butt."

"What's your assignment?" Zatanna asked as the lift began to descend.

"Flood relief down in rural Missouri. Some animals were injured in the recent storms there and the vets need all the help they can get."

"Good luck and wear thick boots. Missisippi river mud can and /will/ get everywhere." Amanda Waller warned him.

"Thanks for the warning Ms. Waller. I'll see if the ASPCA aid workers on scene have some extra galloshes." Wannabeast cast her a huge grin as the lift opened on the lounge.

Tea... with Amanda Waller, their former enemy. It was odd. Zatanna didn't mind, they mostly kept quiet. Though there was a lot of league gossip going on at other tables about both the visitor /and/ the recent spate of storms in the Midwest. Ice and Fire had worked themselves to near exhaustion the last time the Big Muddy overflowed her banks. If Zatanna recalled correctly Waller had brought them chicken soup and the president's thanks for such a valiant effort. Still, towns were being swept away. And with that huge hurricane last year... Zatanna was getting worried.

"So... the US government is thinking of offering free emergency response courses and first aid classes to Justice League members. Any thoughts?" Waller asked suddenly.

"I'd suggest offering it to the non super powered members, or ones that aren't as strong. Don't get me wrong, the seniors who haven't got a heavily science or military based background could still benefit. Its just that the non super powered justice league members often feel marginalized."

"Any particular members in mind?" Waller hrmed, this was new to her. She was the league liason, and wondered if maybe her record with Cadmus was the reason she wasn't yet trusted with the thoughts of individual league members."

"Wildcat... honestly... he's getting old. He's our martial arts coach, and sometimes he feels left out simply because of his age. And I'd also recommend Vigilante for first aid training. He's got good people skills and a talent for getting members of a group that normally don't get along working together."

"I noticed that. He's got a very earthy personality and a tendency to speak plainly and simply." Waller's smile was smaller now, but no less genuine. "I wish some of the people I worked with in the military could speak the way he does. Wouldn't have been half as much politicking at Cadmus if we'd had somebody like that. Who else?"

"Well..." Zatanna hrmed. "I'd like to take them. My show schedule is fairly busy but... now that the idea's out there I rather like it."

"like what?" Flash and Green Arrow sat down at their table, Black Canary a few seconds behind them.

"Waller said the government is thinking of offering emergency responder and first aid training to league members who want it. I told her I thought it would be a good idea for Wildcat and Vigilante to take first aid classes."

"not a bad idea." Canary agreed. "Sometimes Wildcat really feels his age and it gets him depressed. Something to do is considered healthy for men his age. He's in his fifties and the less he thinks about how old he is the better for him in my opinion."

Waller nodded. "When you hit half a century, you tend to feel left out of things at times. Don't want to admit the aches and pains that come with age. I remember my grandfather had arthritis. Terrible back pain. I hated seeing him wince whenever he stood up."

"Not a bad idea for Vigilante to take first aid, his personality gets him put on a lot of PR related missions." Flash chewed on his hot dog, swallowed it, and then added. "I think you should add Booster Gold and Shining Knight to that list. Knight is from medieval times, so any modern skill that can help him in the field is useful but I think veterinary first aid should be added to that. Booster is a prankster, I really think he needs some extra skills under his belt... lets see..." He frowned, gulping down some of his soda. "Oh yeah, you should have Wannabeast and Vixen learn veterinary first aid. Wannabeast already has some solid contacts in the ASPCA helping them with animal cruelty and disaster response issues regarding animals. You should have seen the rescue work he did in the big hurricane last fall. He had dozens of lost dogs and cats running to him for help when he called to them. Had birds locate trapped victims. Got thirty people and fifty animals to come out to rescuers when the eye of the storm hit. One of the coolest things I've ever seen. And if Vixen understands animals better it might help her with her own skills." Flash finished off the last of his hot dog.

"I rather like this idea." Green Arrow grinned. "I'm certified for CPR /and/ portable defibrillator use though. I once survived on a deserted island for months. After that, I learned any skill I could that could save lives in an emergency. And I also agree on that assessment of Booster. Sometimes learning a skill can instill discipline, and thats really what he's lacking. That and direction."

"Alright." Waller smiled. "Anyone else?"

"I'd like to." Flash grinned. "Whenever I find injured in a disaster I have to move them to a hospital in a hurry cause I don't know how else to help them. Wonder Woman should as well. Her temper is legendary but she's got a warrior's heart."

"Alright, I'll put this list to the Senior members." Waller smiled. "Black Canary what about you?"

"Sure, why not? Waller you'll find that a lot of Justice League members focus primarily on honing their skills and refining their control when it comes to their training. Anything that helps us help others better, we'll try at least once. If we aren't good at it, we're not good at it. Knowing that sort of thing is helpful anyway. Green Arrow's gonna be teaching me some of his wilderness skills this summer. We've even got a spot in Brazil picked out for the practice thanks to Fire's recommendation on camp sites."

"Alright, I think I've got enough that I can suggest it to the seniors." Waller smiled to herself, getting up with her notes and finishing off the last drops of tea.

* * *

"First aid lessons huh?" Superman asked that evening at the end of the Senior member meeting. "Sounds like a good idea. I've got three suggestions to add to your list, actually. Since I'd like some first aid training myself, Question should get it, but only so that he can take care of minor things himself. He's a bit on the paranoid side. And then there's Hawk and Dove, who represent war and peace."

Waller chuckled. "Well, Hawk and Dove should get along fairly well with the instructor then. Female drill Seargent with fourteen field medical certifications and awards."

"Nice..."

"I'll give her your business number." Waller slipped her work into her brief case and turned to leave. "Oh and Superman..."

"Hmm?"

"I'm glad to be working here, whatever my history. Don't let anyone tell you different." Waller strode out.

* * *

The odd girl with a hawk like helmet was waiting by his bedside that night when Ichigo awoke. And with her was a man in an odd blue and gold armor. "Hey, I know you're probably feeling sick, just stay down okay."

"I need some water."

The man gestured, and a glass of water appeared on the nearby bedside. Ichigo eased himself up, took the glass, and drank slowly. "Honey?"

"And a bit of ginger to help you keep up your strength."

"Now why is ginger becoming such a popular flavor at the watchtower lately?" The woman snickered.

"It has many medicinal qualities, the chef probably decided it was good for muscle injuries. But I also don't want the boy throwing up what little fluids he has in his stomach."

Ichigo groaned. "I feel like I've been completely drained of energy."

"Alright, well, we figured out a bit of where you came from." Sheiyera said quietly. "An interdimensional rift over Metropolis... near as we can tell that enemy of yours blasted you into a whole other universe."

Ichigo groaned out of annoyance again. "Fucking grimmjow."

"That's his name?"

"yeah."

"Metropolis PD have an APB out for him. With a note to /call/ us."

"He's really dangerous. Grimmjow Jaegerjaques is only the sixth strongest Aizen's got. That bastard. We've been fighting him for months now. Demoralized the squads... tore up all the captains and lieutenants... stopped my bankai with a single finger." Ichigo shuddered. "If he's coming here, terrible things are on the horizon for the place he chooses."

"How terrible?" The woman asked.

Ichigo nearly passed out, he was trying hard to get his warning across but his body was very weak. His head was swimming! The man gently touseled his hair. "If you concentrate on the image, I can telepathically see it in your mind."

Ichigo nodded. "mkay... concentrating." So much easier than using his mouth at the moment.

_The image that the man saw in his mind, and Ichigo knew him as Doctor Fate now, was of Karakura town, suddenly disappearing and collapsing in a burst of dark purple light. Thousands of souls screaming in agony including Ichigo's sisters and father, his mother's grave, his friends, his school, everything he'd known. _

_When the light finished... _

_The O-ken, a powerful tool to open the way to the divine. He who possesses it can enter the realm of the Spirit King, but must destroy 10,000 spiritually saturated acres of land and compress 10,000 souls into the device. As you can imagine, its an extremely destructive tool to create. _

_Its a terrible tool to create, but what can he gain by it?_

_Destroying my world. He wants to supplant the Spirit King. If he does that the world will be destroyed. He thinks he can replace the Spirit King and maintain it. I'm not so sure. Nor do I have any desire or need to question. Aizen hurt my friends, tried to have one of them executed, kidnapped another, and if he had his way, he would have taken and destroyed not only my home city, but my home, my family, and everything I've ever known. Ten thousand innocent souls would have suffered and everyone else back home would have died an agonizing death. _

_Ichigo's eyes were filled with determination. Aizen will not take a soul on /my/ watch. I swear on the blade of my soul, and my bankai, to protect my friends and my family! _

_Ichigo shared with Fate the moment of Aizen's defiance, his treason. How any captain not defeated in the scuffle over Rukia and the "Ryoka Bandits" was beaten down by Aizen. How Rukia was lifted by the throat and the hogyoku forcibly extracted from its hiding place. _

_And Ichigo, his bankai stopped by a single finger. _

_And then the menos extraction of the three traitor captains, Aizen's taunting parting remarks and Tousen's parting comment about his path being the most just one. _

Doctor Fate broke the telepathic contact. "Sheiyera, are the other seniors asleep?"

"All but Batman why?"

"I must contact him immediately then. His tactical acumen will likely give him some good insight into this matter. I will present what I saw to the league in the morning."

* * *

There was something on the air that made Harley Quinn uneasy in her cell at Arkham. Lately she'd been barely able to get more than three hours of sleep a night. The guards and doctors always seemed to give her one next to Poison Ivy and with a good view of the harbor. But Ivy's cell was empty at the moment. By now, Quinn knew the sound of every regular boat to go in and out of Gotham Harbor. She /even/ knew the sound of the Bat Boat and Nightwing, Batwoman, and Robin's seadoos.

So the sound of an unfamiliar motorboat echoing across Gotham harbor roused her from her bed and her vain attempt at sleeping. "I swear, one more night of this and I'm asking for a god damned sedative!" The woman grumped. She crawled across the bed to her window and peered out, then she gasped.

A large swirling cloud of mist had formed over Gotham harbor, pale blue lightning sparks flying from it. The mist was descending towards the harbor in a slow, inexorable spiral. "Uh guard?" Harley turned towards the door of her cell. "GUARD!"

"What the hell is it?" This particular female guard was very, very grumpy.

"Look out there! There's a weird cloud!"

The driver in the motorboat was familiar, cat ears, a tail... CAT WOMAN! She was headed straight for the cloud to take a look.

"Thats been there all evening." The guard told Harley. "Appeared right about sundown."

"No kiddin!"

"Try to sleep Harley." The guard told her. "Remember Batman should be coming tomorrow to visit you and check on your progress."

"i'll try, that thing's creeping me out!" Harley shivered. She turned to the window, leaning her head against it. Catwoman's boat was circling the cloud, trying to get as good a look as possible. "Carefull Selena, you don't know what's in there." Harley muttered as she watched.

A second boat joined the first. Harley knew the disfigured, two toned figure any day. Two face was going out to look at it now?

And then a third figure rose from the water on top of a mass of sea weed. "Red!" Harley whimpered slightly. "Be careful, I don't like that thing."


	4. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight

A/N: Note to self, do /not/ try to spell the word "Commissioner" at 10:35 at night. I'm not as much of a night owl as I used to be, happens when your brain finishes maturing in your mid twenties, but not a good idea. Speaking of which, WTF? I've been on for over a decade and I didn't even notice? Fuck I feel old!

Also I'm working on moving and trying to get our rental company to give us a few perks during the move to our new place. To do that, I need to clean a /lot/ of crud and dishes. DAMN MINECRAFT FOR SUCKING ME IN!

For those of you who have no idea WTF an EMP pulse is, watch Doomsday preppers or the national geographic special. Or the episode of Perfect Disaster about an EMP pulse.

* * *

The three boats paused outside the descending, sparking cloud of mist with no water. One was made of living sea weed, the other two simple motor boats. And three of Batman's most perennial enemies stood, one in each craft. The outcast, half redeemed, questioning, doubting Catwoman. The former DA turned gangster, full of wrath and tortured by anger, Two Face. And finally, the fanatical and half deluded self proclaimed avenger of the environment, Poison Ivy. The three of them stood around equidistant points of the cloud. "So..." Two Face started the conversation. "What are you two doing here?" The sneer on his evil side's face instantly put Catwoman on guard. Her gaze flicked to Poison Ivy.

The redhead cast her a glance. She'd seen the sneer too. Two Face wasn't being polite, he was sizing them up.

"I want to investigate this strange cloud. I heard some pretty weird rumors coming out of Metropolis about a similar one." Catwoman replied, tensing up a bit. She knew Two Face's reputation. He was pretty damn dangerous.

"I want samples, its making the seaweed under it grow pretty large. The fish underneath it are going crazy too." Poison Ivy pointed downwards.

Faint blue glows of bioluminescence illuminated fish darting back and forth in thick schools, snapping up bits of the seaweed, which grew back just as fast as it was consumed.

"Anything that can make a plant grow that fast, I want it." Poison Ivy said with a sneer. "What's it to a big strapping man like you Harvey? Scared somebody's gonna use it to make you even /more/ ugly than you are?"

Two Face had been flipping his coin in his hand as he spoke. Catwoman saw him move in slow motion.

"Lets see... who should I shoot first." Two face mused. "The Bat's pining fangirl, torn between the under world and the over world... or the bitch who nearly poisoned me to death... the choice is so hard." Oh shit, that was right. Catwoman realized, vaguely remembering Bruce mentioning the incident. Poison Ivy had made her debut in the Gotham Underworld by trying to poison Harvey Dent to death with a rare rose.

Catwoman's hand moved to the motor's pull cord and the rudder. Her eyes tracked the coin and Two Face's movements in slow motion. It landed. "heheheheheh, here kitty kitty kitty..." Two Face grinned enormously. He brought a beretta semi automatic pistol up and aimed it at Catwoman.

BANG! Catwoman had started the motor the instant Two Face had tightened his finger on the trigger. The bullet missed her head by an inch. The motor lurched forward, Catwoman's vision was temporarily obscured by the cloud as it came within feet of the water now. In the boat, Isis meowed in fear, pressing against her legs.

Then she blew out of the cloud towards Two Face, brought her cat of nine tails up, CRACK! The beretta went flying into the water. CRACK! A second shot with the cat o nine tails sent a double barreled shot gun flying out of the boat as well.

CRUNCH! Two enormous tentacles of seaweed snatched at Two Face's boat. Poison Ivy's hands were outstretched towards them. She made a grasping motion with one hand and a smacking motion with the other.

* * *

"Get him Red! Show him what for!" Harley was chewing her nails to nubs from her cell in sheer excitement as she watched the fight. "GET 'EM!"

"The fuck is your problem?" She heard Nygma grumbling on the floor above her.

"Hey Ed! Hey ED! Look out the window!" Harley's accent got thicker in her excitement, so 'window' came out 'winduh.'

"Holy!" Riddler had the common sense that Harley, too caught up in the fight, did not. "GUARD! There's a fight out in the harbor!"

"There's a WHAT?" The Guard was at her station at the end of the hall. Harley heard footsteps. "Holy... someone's gonna need a doctor after this!" Bootfalls echoing away and the guard's shout of "DOC! DOOOOOOOCCCC!"

"What are you yelling for at this time of night?" Doctor Bartholomew, the head doctor at Arkham Asylum came down to the main prisoner floor in his pajamas and doctor's coat.

"Look out the window Bart! Look at that!"

"WHAT? Oh damnit, get our emergency room ready. Someone's gonna need it with /this/ going on. If its not those three it will be Batman."

"I don't think we've ever been this close to an actual medical emergency." The guard was saying. "I'm a prison guard not a cop!"

"Get a stretcher ready, Matt will relieve you! Joseph! Maria!"

Harley called up to Riddler as the footsteps died away. "Why'd you do that? You know Red will give Two Face a womping and everything will be fine!"

"I don't know about that. That cloud is an enormous unknown in this puzzle. For all we know it could be explosive and send a gigantic fireball across the harbor. We're stuck in these cells and while the walls are stone, and thus blast resistant, I've seen them give under far less pressure than a firey shockwave from the harbor." which Harley supposed was true. How many times had she and Mister J blasted themselves out of Arkham with far less firepower at their disposal? Suddenly Harley felt much, much less confident in the safety and security of her position.

* * *

Two Face was flung from the boat, the turbulence made the second tentacle miss and knock the motor off of the boat Two face had been thrown from. The gangster went flying up into the cloud, easily fifty feet. He turned midair, going into a dive so he didn't belly flop. So clearly he would attack again if he got a chance. Catwoman had no doubt. He must have trained for combat in a boat, how else would he know that a belly flop would knock the air clean out of him and possibly end in him drowning?

Then there was a sudden downdraft. Lightning surged around the boat Catwoman was in, pale blue lightning. Isis screeched in fear at her feet.

Two Face's hand, the evil one, shot up from the water. The good one grabbed the boat, the evil one reached in, fumbled around, and came up with a hand grenade. "You bitches are going down with me! Hey PAMMY! CATCH!" He roared, throwing the grenade at Poison Ivy.

Poison Ivy snickered. "BATTER UP! Didn't anybody ever tell you how good I am at /softball/ Harv?" Poison Ivy used seaweed to crack the Grenade as high into the sky as she could. "Looks like I just hit a home run, this is why women are soooo superior to..."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! The massive explosion, Isis' terrified shriek of warning, Poison Ivy's manic laughter as she attempted to continue her fight with Two Face in the wake of the hell she'd accidentally unleashed, these were the last things Catwoman heard.

* * *

"RED! YEAH YOU DID IT!" Harley cheered. Suddenly the clock radio in her cell, reading two thirty six am, fizzled out. The shockwaves of lightning rippled off the cloud. A huge burst of pale blue light shot into Gotham harbor.

* * *

Batman's head shot up in the Batmobile, locating the epicenter of the blast immediately. He gunned the ignition on the Batmobile only...

… the Batmobile was slowly gliding to a halt.

* * *

Penguin sat up in bed, his ears twitched slightly. Something was wrong. He grabbed his umbrella and crept to the kitchen, where the absence and wrongness seemed to be. Then he realized...

… the 'wrong' was the refrigerator not working. No familiar hum. Nothing. No lights outside, no appliance idle lights on items like the microwave, the coffee maker. Penguin flipped the kitchen light... nothing!

* * *

Commissioner Gordon's phone went off in his den where he'd finally crashed after an overload of paperwork stemming from the Apocalipse invasion. He'd picked it up. "Hello?"

"JIM! AT THE HARBOR! THREE OF THE ROGUES IN A BIG FI..." The phone stopped working. It had been Doctor Bartholomew though. And he sounded very, very panicked.

Then he looked outside. Across the city nighttime lights were flicking off in a /wave/ on the heals of the pale blue shockwave. "oh my god... BARB! BARBARA GET UP NOW!" He ran for his daughter's room.

"Daddy? I have finals next week." Barbara Gordon raised her head from the pillow. "What's wrong..."

"Get your emergency bag, stay under cover and wait for my signal and for gods sake be ARMED!"

"What's wrong?"

"A fight in the harbor, and its bad enough to..."

* * *

"... cut off the electrical grid." Riddler sighed. "oh boy, this isn't good at all. That shockwave must have let off an EMP."

"A what?" Harley demanded.

* * *

"An electromagnetic pulse!" A lightning wreathed teenage figure had been heading for a prepositioned meeting point. The voice in the radio was another teen. "It looks like your training with Batman might be postponed Virgil."

"Why?"

"Because right now, nothing made in Gotham after nineteen sixty is WORKING! AND ITS GONNA BE ABSOLUTE CHA..." the radio cut out.

"Please tell me the word that got cut off wasn't Chaos." Static muttered as he started searching the city for some sign of Batman.

* * *

"The generator..." Penguin moved to a hidden compartment in the wall and tried to rev up his emergency generator.

Nothing, no dice. Nothing happened.

* * *

"no computer, no cell phone, no lights, no clocks... WHAT THE FUCK IS WORKING HERE?" Barbara demanded in frustration. She started jabbing at her Bat communicator. "WHAATTTT? BUT BATMAN'S GADGETS DON'T BREAK LIKE THIS!"

* * *

"The whole city is going dark..." The female guard, Maria looked around in shock.

"Yes, but it also makes /that/ easier to see!" Doctor Bartholomew pointed out into the water.

An enormous glowing purple mass was swimming towards them.

Maria raised her gun... only for a deep, anguished meeeooooww to sound from the deeply rich purple mass.

The enormous, glowing purple cat rose shakily out of the water, spreading enormous black bat wings. A shinto shrine rope was wrapped around its neck in place of a collar, shrine bells standing up behind her and the rice paper tassles flapping about in the breeze, perfectly dry despite the fact that the cat was soaked. Tall, graceful, enormous rippling muscles in every sinew, it raised itself up, mewling like a much smaller animal. The tail, split in two with the webbing of a bat's tail between the two tails, lashed back and forth and the cat's ears were flat against its head. The animal mewled piteously again and gently pulled the glowing, black spandex and leather clad figure from its back.

Catwoman fell to the ground, coughing up sea water. A huge, purplish black panther like aura stood out around her, with outsized claws and her costume had formed a split cat tail which twitched as if under its own power.

"Get her inside! Selena dear can you hear me? Get her in the isolation ward don't lock her up just let her rest!" Bartholomew knew enough about Meta humans now to know a fresh mutation when he saw one. Sure enough when he pulled her mask off, Catwoman had cat ears and claws.

* * *

"Any sign of Red, Ed?"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Riddler hissed. "and i'm not looking, I'm going to try to go back to sleep because if I watch much more my brain is going to keep me awake ALL NIGHT!" That was a common complaint with the Riddler when he saw something going on in the harbor that caught his attention. HIs brain typically would not leave him alone for hours.

The stretcher rolling in alerted them both. Unable to sleep still, Harley peered outside her window. She saw the pale, glowing, greenish blue mass of seaweed moving surreptitiously towards the shore and realized Poison Ivy must be in or under it somehow.

"Good goin red, show that guy what for." Harley whispered, rolling over and trying to go to bed.

"You're going to be alright Selena, if the powers on again I'll call Batman in the morning."

"It won't be doc..." Riddler grumbled.

"What won't be Edward?"

"The power. That was an EMP that cloud let off. Anything in Gotham made post nineteen sixty is toasted. The grid's gonna take years to fix. Hope you got a hand pump for the water and a spot picked out for your outhouse."

* * *

Batman knew from the position of the stars that Barbara was nearest. He took out his grappling hook, aimed at the nearest rooftop, and took off.

Barbara had just gotten changed and was crawling out her window with her emergency bag when Batman arrived. "Hey, good to see you. Dad ran off for the harbor just as the stuff hit. What's going on?"

"An EMP let off by a fight directly under that cloud in the harbor. Your father's probably going to stop at the police stables first. With the grid down and cars not working he's going to need a horse to get to the harbor before morning."

"I didn't know dad could ride."

"He probably can't." Batman stated didactically.

Batman was right. When they slipped into the stables they heard. "hey there Betty, easy easy!" And angry snorting and stomping.

"You forgot the blanket and your straps are twisted." An emergency flare burst to life and Batman's face was illuminated in the red flame.

"How'd you know where to find me?"

"The logical choice commissioner, when an EMP blast strong enough to take out the batmobile hits, every police car in the city is likely out."

"made sense to us!" A pair of emergency candles bobbed into view. It was Montoya and Bullock, moving cautiously in the dark.

Batgirl snorted. "i'll bet Bull in a China Shop Bullock can't ride either." She couldn't help sticking out her tongue at Bullock.

"But I can. We'll get these horses saddled up and ready to go by 0600 commish." Montoya told Gordon. "Just get riding."

"We've got to get to the harbor. I'll need a standard forensic kit and a signal whistle."

"I recommend a first aid kit and a feed bag while you're at it. Most officers aren't used to a squad car they have to feed, comfort and pet. For the duration of the emergency Commish Black Betty over there is your best friend and your lifeline as an officer." Montoya was rifling through the chests in the stables with ease of practice. "Now, you've got that saddle cinched too tight. Let /me/ tack up your mounts."

"I'll help, I'm really good at riding." Batgirl got started alongside her.

"Good, we need all these horses ready to go. Odds are the mounted police corps will be in by morning to get to work, maybe a few before then."

* * *

Tim Drake slept fitfully in his bed at Wayne Manor, while Yoruichi watched the skies and the lights emanating from the harbor. "This isn't good." Yoruichi spoke her first words in fourty eight hours. Yoruichi debated briefly to herself as to whether or not she should try to wake up Timothy, clearly he was a protector of the city and would be needed very soon. But if "Shadow" became too smart, would Batman begin to question whether she was really a cat?

"Meeeoooooow!" Coming to a decision, Yoruichi started up a cat's solicitation purr (1) and started licking Timothy's face.

"Nnnngggg..." The boy rolled over.

"Meeeooooooooooooooooo!" Yoruichi yowled urgently.

Tim rolled over, Yoruichi sweatdropped. "This kid sleeps like the DEAD." Yoruichi cursed quietly. "What is it with teenagers and sleeping like rocks?"

"RAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!" Yoruichi yowled and dug her claws into Tim's shoulder.

"yaaaaaaaaaaah!" Yoruichi had to dodge the batarang or whatever the bird thingies were, yowling in fear.

"Huh?" Tim turned, looking out the window, blinking sleepily.

"Meow!" Yoruichi hopped up onto the windowsill and pawed at the window. "meeeooorrrr!" She started purring and rubbing against Tim's shoulder.

"What's wrong Shadow?"

"Mrrooooww!" The waves of pale blue light, massive shockwaves of reishi, emanated out from the harbor.

"Oh boy! I'll get my suit!"

Tim ran down the hallway. "DICK! ALFRED! LOOK OUTSIDE! GET YOUR SUIT DICK!" The boy pelted down the hallway at top speed and started pounding on Dick Greyson's bedroom door.

"urrggg, what is it Tim?"

"Look out the window Dick! Something's wrong at the harbor!"

Alfred was already pulling on his coat. "Master Dick, Master Tim, suit up. Master Bruce will be needing a mount. As will many people."

"Do we /really/ have a Bat Horse?" Tim's imagination was running wild with images of horses with bat wings and imposing armor and glowing red eyes.

"Yes we do Master Timothy, his name is Duke. Master Dick, you'll be leading Duke. He knows we have to get him to Master Bruce, he'll run side saddle with you."

Yoruichi meowed and rubbed between Tim's ankles. "Shadow, you shouldn't come. This will be dangerous."

"Meeooow!" Yoruichi insisted on following Tim. She needed to get a good look at the source of that Reishi. She was the only shinigami on scene and her membership in the omnikitsudo had been reinstated. That meant she had to respond to potential spiritual threats, alternate universe or not.

The two boys ran off to get changed. Alfred picked up Yoruichi. "So you want to go too Shadow? Well then." He gently pressed a mask onto Yoruichi's face and gave her a collar with a bird shaped bell on it. Then he strapped a harness with a first aid kit and a robin bird icon on it around her chest. Yoruichi preened smugly, but the final touch, the rich roan red horse with the red saddle and red basket attached to the side, had her settling down for the ride with a purr.

Robin and Nightwing ran out of the changing room. "Right, there's one here each for Batgirl and Batman, Nightwing, you need to drive these horses to Batman, and be careful. With cars not working nearly everyone in the city will be wanting a horse soon." Alfred said quietly. "I've got an emergency ration pack for you each with a flare gun. Godspeed, and remember, all communications, all cars, all signal lights, anything that runs on electricity is not functioning."

* * *

"Kalel... get up..." J'on shook Superman in his bed on the Watchtower's senior officer deck, gently nudging the kryptonian's mind.

"nnnggg... gimme a minute J'on, what is it?"

"A mass burst of energy from the cloud above Gotham Harbor. The surge caused an EMP and there's still lightning appearing in bursts in the city. Satilites picked up a three way brawl between Poison Ivy, Two Face and Catwoman. Catwoman was injured, she washed up on the shores of Arkham Island. Two Face and Poison Ivy's whereabouts are unknown."

Superman swore. "I need a few minutes to wake up, contact Amanda Waller and warn her of the power outage. Then have fresh emergency generators sent to Gotham's hospitals and start getting emergency supplies loaded into the javelins and ready to roll. THEN get as many magic using or psychic or spirit using types as you can. We'll need all the tech types we can to assess the damage. Leave the magic users, psychics, ecetera to help out in the city."

"Alright..." J'on fazed through the ceiling in his haste to follow Superman's orders.

Mister Terrific and Booster Gold were the first to be awakened. Then Zatanna, Etrigan, Fate was planetside but he sent a message to get to Gotham with as many relief supplies as he could carry. Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman were next. And finally, feeling an elemental a non meta and one more flier would round out their group nicely, Fire, Vigilante and Shining Knight.

"All we know is it came from one of the clouds that Zatanna and Etrigan were studying, it happened following a fight between three of Batman's rogues gallery /and/ Gotham currently has no power. Booster, Terrific, your technical skills will be critical. You're to lay low and assess the damage to the power system. Do whatever good deeds you can while your boots are on the ground but your primary objective is to find out what barriers it would be to get the power running. Shining Knight, you and Vigilante go to the mayor's office and alert him to what's happened. Zatanna, Etrigan, I need to figure out exactly how a wave of spirit energy coming from that cloud could create an EMP. Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, be polite, this /is/ Batman's city you'll be working in. See if you can find volunteers willing to help. Check churches and shelters. Fire, you need to put every area hospital, fire station and police station on alert. Get emergency responders OUT OF BED. And be very careful, remember, in Gotham the criminals far outnumber law enforcement."

J'on stepped onto the platform with the others, and signaled the late night tech to teleport them to Gotham.

* * *

Yoruichi kept her ears alert from Robin's saddlebag, senses too. Whenever something potentially hazardous was sighted, she'd yowl.

"HEY DOWN THERE!" A voice shouted down. The birds were just starting to sing, indicating to Yoruichi that it was likely somewhere between 3 and 5 in the morning. Not that you could tell if the sun was coming up. The mist was thick over Gotham.

Robin and Nightwing looked up at the balcony. "Heh, Penguin! What woke you up?"

"My fridge went out."

"With your knees lately Penguin, I'm surprised the pain didn't wake you up! you'd better either find one of your old hideouts and bolt the door shut behind you or get that Model T you've been crowing over for two whole months out and get out of dodge!" Nightwing called up to the portly, birdlike man in his nightgown on the balcony. "It might get rough around here come morning."

"Is that so? How bad is it?"

"Real bad, it could take months to fix Penguin." Nightwing answered up.

"Meeooow?" Yoruichi poked her head up, studying the man.

"Heh, you got a bird cat did you Robin? Here, got something for the pretty kitty." Penguin ducked inside his apartment for a moment and tossed a fish, about six inches long and wrapped in butcher's paper, down. "It will go bad with the power out anyway. Better to not let it go to waste."

Robin caught the fish, prying the package open for Yoruichi, who started to nibble bits off, purring happily.

"Wow, Penguin really must be getting old if he's giving /our/ animals food." Robin snickered as they rode off.

"aw he's just depressed because his knees got to bad to pull off robberies anymore. Didn't you hear? He's gonna need prosthetic ones at the rate he's going. Now he's stuck being a bar tender. That said, Penguin's really good at listening to sob stories. Went to the Iceburg lounge after my last girlfriend broke up with me. He treated me to wine, had to pay for the meal but the wine was good and it was free." Nightwing chuckled.

Yoruichi blinked, realizing the man must be a retired thief. Ah well, getting old must suck immensely for humans.

She kept crouched, ears alert and perked while she nibbled her fish. It didn't take long for most of it to be gone. Yoruichi gulped the last bit of flesh and then started on the eyes. It had been gutted already, which was fortunate as Robin's nice clean saddle basket would be soiled if it still had guts. But...

"aaauuug, SHADOOOW!" Robin plucked up the nearly stripped fish and tossed it out into a nearby garbage can. "Thats GROSS!"

Yoruichi was rather peeved, in some countries the eyes of an animal were a delicacy. They tended to be primarily fluid, meaning that eating them could help stave off dehydration by just a mite, and they were soft enough to eat if you were ill. Yes, animal eyes were rather useful in a pinch. And hadn't he ever heard of the nose to tail movement?

"Thats the harbor. Look at that!" Nightwing pointed to the undulating glowing seaweed on the beach. A huge mass of it in the shape of a person lay in the center. The seaweed was glowing with the pale blue slimy sparking stuff.

"Robin hold the leads." Nightwing cautiously got down, pulling a pair of Nth metal cuffs out and readying them just in case Poison Ivy had somehow been supercharged.

Then the seaweed slithered back into the water, withdrawing and Poison Ivy, glowing pale blue on the ground, lay there coughing. Nightwing got the handcuffs on Ivy and gave her a 24 ounce bottle of water and a couple of granola bars. Then he chained her to the lifeguard station, the plant user glowered at him before laying back in the sand and getting some seriously needed rest. She had electricity wounds anyway. Ivy was more sore right then than she'd ever been in her life.

Nightwing and Robin rode along the mist covered beach, searching for Batman and possibly Batgirl. The mist was cloud matter, not regular mist, and it was spreading. "NIGHTWING!" The shout went up. That was Commisioner Gordon, he looked left, then right, and there he saw the commisioner crouched over a soggy, soaking wet, handcuffed and dazed Two Face. The gangster was wearing some kind of strange armor, vaguely resembling a chess piece, a black bishop and a white knight seemed to form the helmet of the arrangement. Simple black and white plates formed the rest. A roman short sword and infantry shield had been tossed a few feet away up the beach.

"Batman ran off into the mist to get something." Batgirl came from the direction of the water, dragging an enormous glowing stretch of seaweed. "I found this at the battle site. Its bull kelp, and its /seriously/ mutated. This density change is too fast for poison ivy. Her power takes /days/ to mutate a plant. This took hours. I'd say its almost as strong as kevlar." She pulled out a batarang and tried to slash a sample off. She managed to get a few pieces till she came to the pod that usually held the seeds of the kelp. It glowed brilliant blue. Batgirl threw it away from her just in time, it went off with about the strength and noise of a cherry bomb.

"We should watch for poison ivy trying one of those." Robin grinned. "Perfect for an explosive distraction." He bent down to investigate the odd sword. "hey, there's blue slime on this shield..." He pulled out a sample vial and took a quick scraping.

"That looks like what mutated this kelp Robin be careful." Batgirl warned him. "Nightwing please tell me you have a picket line and pin for those horses?"

At that moment Duke's ears perked up, the stallion whinnied, breaking free of Nightwing's grip and dashing up the beach, knocking Nightwing flat on his ass. "Uh, yeah but I think I'm a bit..."

Galloping noises echoed in the spreading mist. Duke came galloping out of the thickening supernatural fog with Batman on his back. Batman had a mildly smug expression on his face. "Never could fool Duke's ears." He patted the horse affectionately on the head. "Must have heard me fifty feet away and came running."

"Meeeoooow!" Yoruichi hopped off the basket she'd ridden in. She darted over to Two Face, sniffing him. Then the kelp, prodding it with her paw.

"you got a pet now Robin?" Gordon peered down at Yoruichi.

"Yep... Shadow's the Bat Kitty, at least until I come up with a better title."

Batgirl chuckled. "Robin's been attached to that thing ever since Batman got her for him. She's very alert for a cat."

"Uhuh! She woke me up out of a sound sleep when the burst went off, meowing and scratching. Then went streaking away and I found her on my costume!" Robin was inventing a few details there.

Batgirl reached up, gently stroking the mare that she'd selected for her emergency mount. The horse was a gorgeous cross between an Arabian and a Morgan horse, with beautiful roan red and pale grey markings. "Easy girl easy..." She rubbed the horse's nose and tried to soothe her, but it was clear the horse was nervous about something.

Yoruichi was sniffing around the general area. She started batting the seaweed with her paws, then extended her claws and sliced at it. Her claws broke off, rather painfully. Yoruichi yowled painfully, flexing the injured digits. _This mutation, its the result of reishi combined with a powerful latent reiatsu. This dimension is full of surprises. _Yoruichi decided against biting it. _Poison Ivy has some very powerful latent potential. _

Batgirl finished getting her samples and sighed. "We need some way to get Two Face to Arkham, but all the cars are busted."

"correction, every car made after 1970ish." Nightwing argued.

"He's right." Batman didn't look happy at that. "Only classic cars would be working about now. None of which are useful as paddy wagons without some modifications to make them armored and bullet proof." He turned to eye Duke speculatively. Could the stallion carry a dazed criminal /and/ himself?

* * *

Penguin had started up his pride and joy, a model T car, restored to full working order. He was an old man, or getting close to it but he had a business, and he had many many toys, some of them useful for something /other/ than playing and shows of machismo.

This was one of them.

The man shoved a number of bags in the back and left for a cache site near Cape Carmine Lighthouse, taking the coastal road. He'd have to take a detour when he got near Ace Chemicals but... he should be able to leave the city before dawn. "never thought I'd have to get out of dodge after giving up crime." Penguin muttered. "I must have put those caches in a decade ago." Penguin was getting close now, going slowly and quietly and listening for any sign of attack. Cape Carmine was Bane's territory, and he knew full well that if Bane were aware of the situation and caught him fleeing Gotham that Penguin would be robbed of anything he had on him /including/ the car.

"HEY! HEY HEY!" That was a very familiar female voice. Penguin slammed the breaks, head perking up.

Penguin stopped the car. He followed the voice calling out. "Pam?"

"Near the lifeguard station! Hey penguin get me out of here!" That was Poison Ivy alright.

"My young flower." Penguin sighed as he found her. "Glad I heard your cries. Powers out all over the city. If you're smart you'll get out of dodge. I can give you a ride. I'll even share my cache. You have no idea how glad I am to see a familiar face that's not likely to jump me. Especially this close to Cape Carmine."

"No need, I have a hideout and lab thirty miles from Central City. You can stay with me, might jeopardize your freedom though. But boy do I have a story to tell /you!/"

"I have a nice little cabin in the poconoes, no need to worry on my account. I'll drop you at your place at Central then head north for some well needed R and R." Agreed Penguin as he carefully picked the lock. The cuffs swung open. "C'mon." Poison Ivy had absolutely no objections. She scribbled a note for nightwing, hopped onto the back of the model T, opened her bottle of water and started to drink. It was gone in minutes, then the granola bars took half as much time. Finding a couple of hay bales, a wool blanket and a canvas tarp, Ivy made a hasty bed for herself and fell asleep.

Penguin had no intention whatsoever of asking something in return from Poison Ivy. She knew the woman's reputation as a 'Man eater.' But more importantly, he wasn't a thief anymore. Exchanging kindness for money was no longer his way. Penguin adjusted his knees in the driver's seat and instantly regretted not adding thicker padding. "Damn knees. I swear I'm going to get that blasted prosthetic surgery when this is done! Titanium knee joints don't sound half bad the shape my legs are in!"

He sighed, focusing on the road, melancholy of the situation in Gotham and his own age set in. The glory days were over. Time, and eventually Death caught up to us all. Every creek of his ailing joints reminded the former thief that life was precious. But Death and aging were going to take him from this life complaining like a crotchety old man the whole way. "Damn bones!"

* * *

Yoruichi looked up at the mist covered sky, the mist of reishi was rapidly flowing over Gotham. Fertile ground for a quincy if Uryu were here. A pity...

She concluded her investigation of the site and retired to Robin's saddle basket. Samples were being packed up. Batman had figured out how to get Two Face onto the police horse Batgirl was no longer riding. Learned it from Jonah Hex on their strange time travel journey awhile back.

"Lets do this." Commisioner Gordon cracked his neck a bit. "Damnit, I hope I'm not stuck riding a horse to work. That would be absolute murder on my back." He checked the halter nervously. "Right, I got a call just before the power went out from Doctor Bartholomew at Arkham. He was reporting a fight in Gotham Harbor. We should make sure Arkham's gates aren't swinging wide open and we have to bring two face there anyway."

"I was going to visit Harley today." Batman said quietly. "To encourage her in her rehabilitation. Might have to cut that short."

"She having any problems beyond the usual?" Gordon asked him as they started riding towards the clifftop on the edge of town where Arkham was located. The last time Arkham had declared Harley Quinn 'cured' a misunderstanding had comically snowballed out of control and left a terrified Harley running for the hills till Batman convinced her to come down, calm down, and come back to the police station to explain the whole sorry, and amusing tale. It had been all Commissioner Gordon could do not to laugh at the poor woman's bad luck. The sun was rising over the hills, and while he was quite friendly with Doctor Bartholomew, talk of Harley reminded him that he'd be heading to a prison hospital full of supervillains that /hated/ his guts.

"Insomnia, only been getting three hours a night. The disturbance last night likely means she got none." Batman sighed. "I'd /like/ to see her rehabilitated and as far from the Joker as possible. Deprives him of a pawn. Not to mention I don't think she was cut out for the criminal lifestyle in the first place."

"And we don't get to rehabilitate any costumed crazies. Catwoman's been seen even if she hasn't committed any crimes. I've gotten several tips left under the bat signal that I know for a fact are her hand writing."

"Yes, I know. I read them and put them back." Batman's tone was only slightly smug.

"Really... you let me have something from one of your rogues. I thought for sure you'd put them in your trophy hall if you got them."

"They're anonymous tips as far as I'm concerned, and addressed to you." Batman kept his voice quiet. It was just conversation, something he wasn't too keen on.

They rode through the dark, misty Gotham waterfront. "I wonder, if this mist made the kelp grow huge, what about us for breathing it." Batgirl wondered, riding at the back with Robin.

"I don't know..." Robin shuddered. "I don't want to think about it."

Batgirl gulped. "I mean, Gigantism usually occurs enmasse where there's an over abundance of oxygen. So maybe the size and density of the kelp just means that there was lots of oxygen for it... but... aaaaggg, the thought makes my head hurt! I mean seriously, what's the consequences of breathing this stuff in? Its making me sick just thinking about it."

"Actually thats a pretty good point." Batman looked up towards the cloud's origin point. "But I think its effect is different on humans and that the mist interacted with Poison Ivy's power to make that kelp so big and dense. Think about it. We /found/ Two Face with that armor on him, the sword and shield too. There are a lot of duality related things that Two Face has used in his crimes none of them were chess. The white knight? Psychologically indicative of Harvey Dent. The black bishop, the piece named for a church official who's rank is usually associated with judgemental attitudes in the eyes of non clergy. If combined with the color black, the black bishop scheme in the armor could be interpreted as "evil judgement." In other words, his dark half or Two Face." Batman mused. "This is just speculation, but perhaps that mist brings the subconscious minds of certain people to life."

"That could explain why Poison Ivy was covered in sea... oh SHIT!" Nightwing urged his horse around to the lifeguard station where he'd chained Ivy.

By the time the rest of their party arrived at the lifeguard station, Poison Ivy was gone and Nightwing was holding the note in his hand, stunned, a look of shock on his face. Robin plucked the note from nightwing's hand. "Dear Nightwing, thanks for the water and protien bars, since you decided to be nice to me, I decided to be nice in return and not sell the Nth metal in those cuffs on the black market. I'm getting out of dodge for a few months, see you sucker, Poison Ivy." Nightwing finished with something rude. Robin started laughing.

Batman's face started twitching.

"But there was no way she could have gotten out of those cuffs! They were Nth metal!"

"which is primarily effective against magic users. Useful for subduing members of the al Ghul family, like Talia, who specialize in magic but NOT for Meta Humans." Batman scolded Nightwing. "You got careless because it was an emergency, now WHAT did you find her in..."

"Um... armor, made from that seaweed." Nightwing was trying to swallow his embarassment and frustration. Poison Ivy had gotten the better of him repeatedly when he was Robin. And he thought he'd matured beyond the point where she could get the better of him. But he'd been in a hurry. He shoved his returned Nth metal cuffs into a plastic bag to preserve any tool mark evidence and shoved them into his saddle bag.

Yoruichi mused over how much Batman had figured out already about the reishi fog filling the city. Anyone who was sensitive to it would have their spiritual powers awakened and hundreds, possibly thousands more would develop the ability to see ghosts. (2)

"Again, Poison Ivy's subconscious... she likes to show herself to be as strong as the men and have the advantage of distracting them with a seductive exterior /and/ she's obsessed with plants due to her existing ability to control them." Batman mused. "As I said subconscious mind."

Nightwing frowned. "I don't want to know what's in /my/ subconscious mind."

"Heh, knowing the four of us we'd probably have pretty screwed up subconsciouses." Robin giggled.

"I won't have anything for it to bring out." Batman said quietly. "Batman /is/ my subconscious brought to life already." He glanced guardedly at the commisioner for a moment, as though he'd said something he shouldn't.

Yoruichi wondered if maybe Gordon-san knew the man beneath that mask but... none of her business.

"Heh, probably." The police commisioner just chuckled at that. "We're nearly to Arkham I think."

"no, we're not at a high enough elevation, two more miles." Batman told him.

"how do you /know/ that?" Gordon demanded.

"I know this city, including its beaches, and the approach to Arkham especially, very well Commissioner." Batman said quietly. "Further, its not "two miles or so to go" it is two miles with a twenty yard margin for error."

"Wanna bet..." The Commissioner got a determined glint in his eye. "Tell you what, I'll buy you a cup of coffee if you can prove that once the fog clears. I dunno, shove a batarang somewhere nearby here or something to mark the start point for our bet."

Batman smirked, an eyebrow quirking. "you're on." Batman slipped off his horse and moved over to a nearby tree. He climbed about ten feet up and shoved the batarang into the wood. "Go ahead... mark the location in your mind and come back here when the mist is gone."

Laughing, Gordon rode over to the tree and noted the location. "Concealed to keep a passerby from finding it I'll bet."

"not enough people look up." Batman responded simply as he got back onto Duke's back. "Its how I keep getting the drop on criminals over and over, repeatedly. An assault from above is rarely noted by your average person until its too late. Same principle." (3)

The ascent up the hill was mostly quiet, and as they rounded the final bend, Yoruichi caught her first glimpse of Arkham asylum. It reminded her of some human ghost stories about haunted houses. Yoruichi shuddered a bit in the saddle.

As they entered the gates, commissioner Gordon called out "Hellooooo! Anybody home?"

There was a soft growl. A huge figure reared up out of the mist, which seemed to be thinner up here. The giant ebony black cat lifted itself from where it had been lying outside the front door. It had two tails, and as they twitched behind it, Yoruichi caught sight of the webbed tail rudder of a bat. The tips of those tails had pale blue flames on them. Pale blue flames covered the cat's paws and the tips of her very batlike ears. A shrine rope served as harness and collar for the beast, two shrine bells sticking out behind it like an extra pair of ears. The white papery strips on the shrine rope dangled over the enormous cat's chest. The cat opened two enormous bat wings from its back. There was a pale white marking on its chest, vaguely shaped like the bat family's icon.

The cat stepped forwards, Gordon winced, ready to turn tail and run. But the cat ignored him, moving to gently push at Batman's hand, purring quite happily. Batman's eyes widened briefly. "Isis?"

* * *

1. Cats have two purrs, the happy purr, and the solicitation purr which means they want something. The latter is slightly higher in pitch than the former. (source, BBC Horizon 2013)

2. That said, besides the ghost seeing bit, I have /no clue/ what sort of spirit power Joker and Scarecrow would have. Knowing Joker, it would involve fire, poison and explosives, knowing scarecrow it would probably be some kind of illusion that compliments his fear gas. The problem is I'm not sure how Batman will fare against regular hollows and arrancars, let alone souped up Reishi enhanced versions of his rogue's gallery. So /not everyone/ is getting spirit powers. Just my favorites. XPPPPP sorry Joker, Riddler and Scarecrow. I hate all three of you and you can kiss my ass. In a fic I never published, Scarecrow got gutted by a hollow and only survived because the Titans caught the hollow attack in progress and had a water/ice user with them as a guest that froze his wounds shut. Likewise, in said unpublished fic Joker's legs got smashed by a hollow, multiple fractures, months in traction, and all he could say was "IT WAS FUCKING WORTH IT! DID YOU SEE THE LOOK ON THAT GRIMMJOW KITTY'S FACE WHEN HE SAW THE SIZE OF THE EXPLOSION FROM MY JOKER BOMB?" Grimmjow, meanwhile, doesn't need Joker Toxin to be laughing his head off at the whole situation back in Hueco Mundo. "aww yeaaaah, Joker soul seasoned with that FUCKING TOXIN of his! I'm salivating! Aizen-sama lemme go eat him in the hospital!"

3. And its a principle used in marketing in stores all over the real world as well as in real life situations where concealment is called for such as a surveillance camera. In addition retail stores like to put the most expensive items at a person's eye level, and the least expensive at the top and bottom of the rack because people tend to look on their eye level. Children's items like toys, and sweets tend to be at the level of the shopping cart, perfect for grabby toddlers. Batman is simply using the neurology of the human senses to make sure his marker isn't disturbed.


	5. Rolling Star

Notes: I'm thinking of putting a sample section from my original disaster story, Elder Dryas, into the next chapter. All you people liking and favoriting the fic, please review and tell me if you want to hear it.

* * *

Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl were searching the city for any sign of Batman and stopping at fire and police stations to find volunteers when they found the familiar blue suited, dreadlocked figure collapsed on an apartment building roof. A couple of ten year old kids were leaning over Static. One had put a pillow under his head the other was wafting a cup of tea under his nose, trying to use the smell to wake him.

"Easy there kids. Let us have a look."

"He won't wake up!"

"The lightning man won't wake up!"

"His name is Static." Wonderwoman corrected the two kids. "Now what are your names?"

"Jane, and this is my twin Joseph." The taller of the two replied. "We come up here in the morning to eat our breakfast. We saw the super hero passed out and he didn't look to comfortable."

"You're right, he doesn't, lets see if we can get him up." Hawkgirl gently started shaking Static. "Hey, Static, wake up! Get up!"

"WHA?" the boy sat up straight. "What the heck... oh noooo, how embarassing. I got downed by a bright blue bolt of lightning. Maaaaaaan... thats just not normal or right!"

"We made you some tea!" Jane exclaimed, gently pushing the cup towards Static.

"Oh... um... thanks..." Static realized the kids had actually gotten him a pillow and chuckled, taking a long sip. Now Static was a teenager, he drank soda, not tea, so he'd never had any. Still, the beverage was soothing and slowly started to wake him up a bit more.

"It probably wasn't a normal lightning bolt. We know this phenomena is connected to an interdimensional rift above the harbor." Hawkgirl told him.

"Awww maaaan." Static sighed. "So is it true? All the power's out in the city?"

"Yep!" The two kids exclaimed. "We made the tea using daddy's esbit stove! Daddy's a biker so he has teeny tiny trail gear for when he's on the road!" (1) They pointed to a slate with a tiny stove with fuel tablets burning and a kettle boiling on top. "We're gonna make a raincatch, its been raining recently and daddy said if the water's ever not running we needed to make one as fast as we could!"

"is that so, where is your father?" Wonder Woman gently touseled the children's hair.

"He's a fireman, he got up really early this morning to get to his station!" Joseph replied. "Its ten blocks that away! Not far a run at all!" He pointed.

"Static, J'on said to raise as many relief volunteers as we could. You wanna come with us?" Wonder Woman asked the young hero.

"Sure, I may have gotten the wind knocked out of me but I'm still good to go. I was supposed to do some training with Batman but..."

"Pfftt, forget Batman, I say when we're done with things here we take you up to the watchtower and see what sort of fighting moves Wildcat can beat into you." Laughed Hawkgirl, thumping the young hero on the back. "He's the one who taught Batman to box! Black Canary learned her moves from him too! But he's old now, really feeling it lately. He'd probably get a kick out of you!"

* * *

"First aid instructor?" Wildcat blinked. "Supes I'm not a medical type!" He looked wildly from Superman to Amanda Waller.

"But you /are/ a teacher type." Superman grinned. "I figured some special instruction would give you something to do."

"I've seen your lessons Wildcat." Waller smiled. "I think you'd make a great instructor. Please think it over? Surely anything you can do that will help others..."

"you know Wildcat, in ancient hunter gatherer tribes, the elder was the tribe's teacher." Hawk and Dove strode in with huge grins on their faces.

"Sorry we're early boss." Hawk grinned. "Something about a new training assignment?"

"Waller's reccomendation got you in, go ahead and tell him."

"I've got a combat medic and search and rescue program thats interested in taking you and Dove in as trainees. Its no glory assignment, you'd be training to pull injured fighters from the battlefield and get them to the nearest source of medical care. But it would help you, I think, live up to your nom de guerre a bit better."

"Anyone else going?" Dove asked curiously.

"I've got a list of league personnel reccomended for varying first aid, emergency response, and search and rescue training programs. The training would be free of charge."

"Who did the reccomending?"

"Your peers." Waller replied, a huge grin on her face. "I made some discrete inquiries around the league and asked who they thought should take this sort of training. Superman himself reccomended you two."

The man of steel blushed slightly. "Well, you asked who would be good for first aid and search and rescue training. And I thought of Hawk and Dove, and I thought the programs they train in should fit their names."

"And I got a reccomendation for teacher from whom?" Wildcat demanded.

"Two students who very much respect you."

"Damnit Canary I DON'T NEED BABYSITTING." Wildcat hissed.

"Who said it was her?" Waller asked.

"Its obvious! C'mon supes, I'm a grown man I don't want to be coddled!" (2)

"Its not coddling." Dove told him. "You are easily the best hand to hand combat teacher I've /ever/ had. You taught me that I could still learn to fight hand to hand according to my name and mission back when I was a rookie. Wildcat that was /important/ to me. I agree with whoever reccomended you for instructor training. You are a /great/ teacher and to not put you /in/ a teaching position is wasting your talent!"

"you really think so?"

"I know so! Back me up on this Superman, Waller..."

"I have found that Superman is a very good judge of character, and he was the one who suggested individual specialties for the three of you." Amanda Waller said serenely. "Remember, who was reccomended and for what was based on peer reccomendations. Not on my judgement /or/ some government bigwig."

Superman's thoughts had repeatedly gone to Gotham this morning. It was still early there. There was still time for a riot to begin over the lack of electricity and the prospect of /months/ of no power. His fingers tapped a bit on the table.

Hawk was just flabbergasted, too much so to do more than blush and splutter. "i'd be trained as a... as a... as a..."

"Combat medic, yes Hawk. It means in the eyes of the US Military you would be certified to perform emergency evacuations of soldiers on the battlefield and the combat equivalent of being a certified EMT. Its a dangerous job, but the zeal with which you support our men and women in uniform makes me think that you would be a very good protector for them, and for your fellow Justice League members, which would make up the bulk of people you'd be supporting." Waller said with a small smile. "My grandfather was a world war two fighter pilot. He was a good man. I take veteran affairs issues seriously and I take the care of military wounded seriously."

Superman grinned. "That said, its Justice League and civilian wounded you'd be training to evacuate. You wouldn't be part of the military, just certified by them that you can perform the task. Now whatever their attitude towards us, a military issued certification in any specialty is held in high respect. The purpose of training league personel in Search and Rescue related specialties is to supplement their existing skills and personalities."

Hawk was absolutely stunned. To him, any training or certification from the army was a /high/ honor.

"I warn you Hawk, your teacher will be one hell of a bitch." Waller grinned. "i know her, they give her only the most promising and she makes them bleed for what they earn."

"Bring it!" Hawk was totally fired up.

The clock on Superman's desk beeped. "And thats mess. I've got some mixed announcements today."

"Why?" Dove asked curiously.

"Notice any seniors absent?"

"Yeah, Bats, Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman."

"Some stuff hit the fan last night, I'll explain when we get to the mess." It was a new tradition in the league that when there were either awards to be given out or important assignments to be given, or the League was going to be busy in general, Superman would do announcements in the morning in the mess hall.

When Amanda Waller tried to turn aside at the door and wait at the back of the hall, Superman grinned. "Nonsense, this was your idea you come to the front with me when I explain it."

Superman took the cup of coffee that he normally drank when he had an announcement. A couple of people with sharp eyes paused in their conversation, looking up when he came to the front and tapped his oatmeal spoon on the side of the coffee cup. "I have both good and bad news this morning. Now the good news is easiest to explain and it will give you something to look forward to while you deal with the missions that will result from the bad news."

"Amanda Waller had the idea to get funding for the Justice League to take emergency response classes ranging from EMT and Combat Medic certs to general disaster response and for a few of you, Veterinary EMT certifications. I managed to get reccomendations from all the seniors last night with the exception of Batman, whom as we all know is impossible to impress or please, so there may not be any point." A chuckle from the crowd. "But I want you to know that those of you who were reccomended for these classes, the choice is entirely yours and it was your peers that reccomended you. Not some government suit out in Washington who doesn't know you. Green Arrow is posting the final class offerings and how many reccomendations each person got. The exact nature of those reccomendations is to remain a secret. Though we do have some very good sleuths among us I'd hope they'd know better than to ruin the enjoyment of others by spreading whom reccomended whom for what and why."

Several people glared at Question immediately on that statement. "Yeah don't ruin it!" Vixen snickered. "Cause if the Illuminati somehow slipped their reccomendations in I don't wanna know."

"Stop teasing me please. I take that statement quite seriously." Question sighed long sufferingly.

"Anyway, if you want to take the courses you were reccomended for, please see Amanda Waller this evening. You know what table she likes for her evening tea..." Waller, on the station at least, had a few habits she liked. Coffee in the morning, green tea in the evening, the occasional sweet at the end of lunch, and a great big pile of facts and figures for her review waiting in the mess.

"So, that brings me to the bad news. You'll notice we're down three seniors this morning. Well, a case of Zatanna and Etrigan's escalated at two in the morning today and ended in an EMP going off in Gotham. An emergency advance crew has already been sent down to locate Batman, find volunteers and assess the damage. We're down one dispatcher, because Mister Terrific was on that team, and a good number of our magic using or magic conversant members are down there at the moment trying to figure out what happened.

"Here's what we know. At midnight last night, this cloud, which has a duplicate over Metropolis, descended towards the surface of Gotham harbor. At 1:45 am when it had nearly finished descending to the water's surface, Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Two Face, three of Batman's rogues gallery one of whom is on parole and on our watch, but not /wanted/ list, went to investigate. I'm sure they all had their individual reasons. But when Catwoman and Poison Ivy tried to get samples of the cloud Two Face fired on them with an illegally altered high caliber beretta semi auto. Catwoman managed to disarm him and avoid serious injury, not realizing that Two Face had other weapons concealed in the boat. Poison Ivy damaged Two Face's boat and threw him 50 feet into the cloud where he then landed in the water. Two Face responded by grabbing a grenade from his about to capsize motor boat and trying to throw it at Poison Ivy. Poison Ivy flung the grenade into the cloud using a tendril of sea weed and accidentally set off an EMP pulse which then spread throughout Gotham City.

"At the moment, any technology made after the nineteen sixties and seventies is going to be /not working/ there. That means cars, power, communication, sanitation, water, heating, food deliveries and cooking appliances. The cops have no way to get to work. The firemen have no way to put out fires. The grocers have no way to keep food from going bad. The bankers can't open their banks or register withdrawels and deposits.

"Whatever your stance on technology use or overuse, we have an entire American City blasted back to the eighteen hundreds to nineteen fourties in technology and the damage could take months to fix. Not only is an EMP over a Modern American city an /extremely/ rare event, but its a damaging one... yes Aztec?"

"You said a modern american city superman, does that mean that this has happened in the past?"

"yeah, in the eighteen hundreds an EMP pulse sparked by the sun set off a massive electrical surge. Fortunately the only technology that took a big loss was the telegraph." Hawk answered the question for Superman. "There was one modern instance of an EMP blast set off by Project Starfish Prime back during the Kennedy administration, but it primarily hit Hawaii and a few parts of California and Alaska. It didn't hit a population center as dense as Gotham. Nothing with Gotham's population density anywhere in the world has ever been hit by an EMP. Its going to be chaos down there for a bit."

"And it could happen in metropolis..." Superman cued the viewscreen. "Remember, I said there were two clouds. This one hasn't gone off because an old acquaintance of ours, the Spectre, is holding /that/ cloud back. Inside each of these clouds is an interdimensional rift. The metropolis one, as you've probably heard, sent a superpowered youth named Ichigo and his assailent Grimmjow Jaegerjaques, careening through the daily planet building. So add interdimensional monsters and the people who fight them to the list of possible crisis that could come through those rifts." There was a /lot/ of groaning. "Further, Doctor Fate managed to gleen a few details about that boy's circumstances from his mind. There is a war raging on the other side of that rift where, allegedly, there are multiple fighters on each side that fight on mine and Darkseid's level. We have to be ready for literally anything coming through those rifts.

"With a few exceptions, work in Gotham is going to be done in six hour shifts. When your shift is over, finish your business, come back, eat, rest, and make sure you don't strain yourself. If there's the possibility of more coming, we need to be ready. I don't want to hear somebody pulled a muscle, stayed up too late, or skipped a meal and their powers shorted out resulting in injury.

"now, I'm going to give out some assignments related to this incident. Atom, you're going to help analyze that cloud material. I want a physicist's take on it. Zatanna and Etrigan are already working to try to figure out what it is, a fresh perspective might help. Go out in the field, observe, then join them in the lab to work on this.

"Of course."

"Stargirl, you are going to have a very, very important duty. Keep watch over the metropolis cloud. If Spectre starts to show any sign of strain, call Doctor Fate immediately. Do not do anything to ruin his concentration, its an immense drain on Spectre's strength to hold that rift and keep it from becoming larger or more violent. It may not seem like an important job, but I /do not/ want that going off in Metropolis under any circumstances. The results could be spectacular and devastating."

"yes sir!"

"Bwannabeast, I need you to see if you can coordinate animal services on the ground. There are going to be a lot of Gotham Cops riding horses or handling dogs to help make up for the shortfall and people will very likely rent horses and carts if they can get some. Make sure that whatever animal transport people start using goes smoothly and isn't being overtaxed.

"Sure thing boss!"

"Now, we need a half a dozen people to deliver emergency supplies via the Javelins. Martian Manhunter has been asked to put together the first shift to go down and they'll be riding with the supplies. Get emergency services running first. Thats your /primary/ order. After that, get as many people food, water and warmth as you can and do your best to minimize injuries. Do NOT discourage people from evacuating. If you can, try to get evacuees to go together in groups and escort them to city limits. If they have no evacuation point then we will find something we can use to accomodate them. Rioting is unfortunately a possible consequence of this emergency, so keep alert and keep your cool."

J'on stood up. "Will the following people please report to the javelin bay." And began to rattle off names.

Waller sat down with him, cradling her coffee cup. "You know, I can get you guys some information the government has on EMPs. Though its geared towards a country wide incident, not a city, you may be able to gleen something useful from it."

"Thanks... the government actually put together a response to this?"

"not really, its more of a simulation to see what kind of damage an emp could do. We were concerned either about one from the sun or from a rogue nation. Or a supervillain. Always a possibility."

"Of course." Superman sighed. "I guess it couldn't hurt, whatever you can get."

* * *

Isis purred and rubbed against Batman, clearly grateful for his presence. "Is Catwoman inside?"

The cat purred louder, which Batman took as a yes. Yoruichi hopped out of the basket on Robin's saddle and onto the larger cat's back with a soft. "mrroooww."

Isis purred harder than before, ears twitching. "mrruuup?"

"nyaaaaaaa..." Yoruichi yawned.

"Its almost like they're having a conversation." Robin giggled.

Doctor Bartholomew came running out. "oh thank goodness you're here. My, my my, Harvey did you get carried away again?"

"aw shove it up your ass and around the corner." (3)

Isis hissed at Two Face, ears laid back and teeth bared. The man glared back at her. "Hey kitty, you wanna be my throw rug keep going." He sneered.

"I won't let you do that." Batman said with a barely contained sigh of resignation. "Not only does that cat not belong to you, but she's big enough now she could probably rip your head off."

The nurses took Two Face inside, and he started making comments about their asses. Nightwing called after Two Face. "What if Grace saw you cat calling those nurses." Two Face shut his mouth and flipped Nightwing the bird, which just looked ridiculous given that he was in cuffs.

"Selena is upstairs. Last I checked she was passed out asleep. She's exhausted Batman, she'll need a few days rest. Harleen saw the entire fight from her cell window. Harvey fired first and anything Selena did in this case is a clear cut case of self defense. As for Pamela, she also defended herself but the intent to do harm to Harvey was clearly there. Lawfully it was self defense, but emotionally she clearly wanted to kill him."

Commissioner Gordon sighed. "I probably shouldn't go in there. Lots of folks who don't like cops."

"My advice is to hold your head up high, keep your face calm and stride steady, don't swagger, don't say anything to them, don't respond, don't wince." Batman said quietly. "its still early, odds are the prisoners in there are sleeping still. Riddler won't be."

"How'd you know?" Bartholomew chuckled. "I swear Batman, you must be a psychiatrist under that mask!"

They turned and walked in. Batman didn't make Commissioner Gordon go in, but the man followed anyway. Robin picked up Yoruichi and carried her with him. "C'mon Shadow, this place gives me the creeps. You might as well see it. Just be careful, some of the prisoners can be mean to small animals, or people."

Batgirl called after the others. "I'll tie the horses up, Doc is there a spot I can use for a hitching post?"

"Flagpole, west side."

"Gotcha!" Batgirl lead their horses off, tying them up at the flagpole. Each one got a pat, a noserub, and a reassuring word before Batgirl hurried off to join the rest of the group.

Nygma was lying awake in his cell, hands behind his head. He turned his head as they came in. "is it as bad as I think it is Batman?"

"If "as you think it is" means the entire city is tossed back to the late eighteen hundreds in terms of technology, then yes. Hope you're up to date on how to use steam power. Without the right funding Arkham is going to become very cold this winter." Batman said cooly before continuing down the cell block.

"My compliments to Catwoman on a battle well fought." Nygma said airily as they continued past his cell. He yawned hugely.

"He's pretty calm." Gordon was quite unnerved. But he did want to make sure catwoman was okay and he needed to get her statement.

"Right now we're the least of his worries. Nygma is probably trying to figure out how things will play out here at the asylum and more importantly how it effects him. He's a narcissist. I doubt he's going to care about the rest of the city." Batman said, his voice quieter than normal but no less stern. He didn't want to make a scene by waking up the inmates.

When they got up past the guard post a boy came out of the warden's office rubbing his eyes. "Dooooocc, none of the computers are working! How'm I supposed to earn my allowance if there's nothing to work on." Then he blinked and saw Batman. "oh hi! er... Mister Batman sir... I'm Bobby, my mum's the warden. I come by to do techwork since I don't charge as much as a pro." The boy yawned.

"i see... there was an EMP last night Bobby, tell me, how good are you with computers?"

"Enough to know when a motherboard is fried as an egg on sight. I'm trying to get them to let me take Comp TIA training but they won't let me cause I'm twelve." The boy replied, another huge yawn. "What's an EMP and is there any hot water for tea yet?"

"Nope... tell you what, get a nice big pile of firewood put together outside okay?" Batgirl had returned fairly quickly and she leaned down and touseled the boy cheerfully on the head. "You guys are gonna need it. There's no electricity anywhere in the city."

"Mkay." Bobby yawned. "I'll go borrow some rope and a saw from the groundskeeper's shed." The boy ran off.

As they walked down the halls towards the tower at the far end of the Asylum Doctor Bartholomew passed nurses coming in for early shifts as well as guards and made sure to hand out quick orders. "We need to secure heating, clean water, a private latine and a method of cooking." He told the head nurse. "Get it figured out so that we don't have to worry about water born diseases and sewage on top of everything else. Build a raincatch and see if you can find bottled water for now. Avoid drawing water from the bay and if you have to, filter, distill, /then/ disinfect. This is a hospital. I will /not/ have nineteenth century sanitation problems on my watch."

"Yes Doctor." The nurse replied quietly. Batman was taken in by the woman's striking appearance, but only because she was unusual. Her scrubs were white with blue trim and she wore a silver cross with a sapphire on it around her neck on a tarnished silver chain. Small silver tubes were mixed in with her pens. Her hair was deep glossy black and her expression clinical and professional despite her submissive tone of voice.

His eyes narrowed. But he said nothing. If the woman was a fellow superhero, or if she was the opposite, a supervillain, Batman betrayed none of his suspicions. Just... something about the woman set off his internal alarm bells.

Yoruichi, on the other hand, immediately recognized a Quincy when she saw one. "Oh and Robin, please ask permission before you bring animals on the ward." Was the woman's cold parting shot. The look on her face as she regarded Yoruichi was one of pure and utter hatred.

Batman saw the look as well, his eyes flickered to Yoruichi, who's hackles were up, ears laid back in a defensive posture. And it slowly came to him that Shadow may not be an ordinary housecat, just the way the nurse was not an ordinary nurse. It was nothing he could prove, just a feeling. But a strong one. Shadow didn't /feel/ like a regular cat. The nurse didn't /feel/ like a regular nurse.

Batman blinked for a moment, for that matter, since when did he have gut feelings /that/ strong?

Then he rounded the corner and saw Catwoman sprawled out asleep on the simple medical bed. Her mask and boots were off, her cat of nine tails hanging from the bed. Her breathing was even, clearly she was asleep.

"Soon as you have that water hot, I'd like some tea doctor. I think some would be in order for the commissioner as well." Batman's manner was very contained, he kept his voice low. When he sat down next to Catwoman, she stirred in her sleep, mumbling something about Bats and 'missing a good party.'

Batman chuckled slightly, just a faint, gravely snort of a sound. "if thats what you call a party Selena, I think I'll pass."

"mmm? Batman?" Catwoman's eyes cracked open a bit. "Heeey. Took you long enough."

"I was on my way to meet a new trainee when the emp burst struck. Powers out all over the city." Batman said quietly.

ZOOOOOOOOM! Batman heard a javelin shooting over head. Then another, and another. "Heh, relief party..." Commissioner Gordon grinned.

Batman called out to Robin outside the room. "Robin, go out and signal the next league javelin to go by."

"Mkay." Robin got up and hurried away down the hall.

Yoruichi ran after him, eager to see the 'relief party.'

She rounded the corner in the entry hall and spotted a man in green with orange eyes and wearing a blue cape in the hall. "Please keep your voice down Manhunter." Bartholomew was saying. "yes, Batman is up in the tower at the back. But our patients, for the most part, are still sleeping and so is the patient he's visiting."

Yoruichi sensed very keen reiatsu from the man. She ducked behind the front guard's desk, still worrying about her number one goal, finding Ichigo. She didn't want someone who was really powerful crossing her path. The man's footsteps paused as he went by.

"Sir?" A younger male voice asked. "J'on are you alright?"

"For a moment Green Arrow, I thought I sensed someone thinking of Ichigo." OH SHIT, Yoruichi realized. The man's a telepath! She had to stay away from him no matter what!

"not me. I just hope that kid wakes up soon. He's becoming a regular topic of speculation up on the station. A boy who's neither dead nor alive and two odd clouds above two of the justice league's most beloved cities."

Yoruichi's heart began to pound. Ichigo was on a space station? How the heck was she supposed to get to him UP THERE!

"We'd better find his body soon or that kid is gonna be toast." Green Arrow grumbled. "Are you sure you couldn't have me keep searching Metropolis? Its gotta be around there somewhere!"

"no, the seniors debated this repeatedly. We placed the greater odds being that his body is in his home dimension rather than near where he fell."

Then they passed out of earshot. Yoruichi gulped, shaking slightly.

"J'on! Arrow!" Robin eagerly called out. "hey!" Yoruichi kept crouched under the desk. "Batman sent me to signal the nearest javelin, but it looks like you got here first."

"Hey, the horse in body armor was clear sign enough to us." Green Arrow grinned. "I'm just sorry Black Canary got a different shift. She'da gotten a kick out of the horse in bat armor."

Robin laughed. "yeah, I'd never ridden before. It was fun but kinda nerve wracking. I mean, this big powerful animal, and I'm sitting on its back and I'm thinking 'no way it wants me up there.'"

"Naw, the key to riding a horse is to not be afraid, because your fear is contagious to it." Green Arrow told him.

Yoruichi crept outside, spotting the small green and blue fightercraft. She darted inside, only for the pilot, another costumed man with an atom sign on his uniform's chest, to pick her up and put her out. "Now now kitty, thats Robin's mark you're wearing and I don't think the Boy Wonder would like it if his super cat ran away."

Yoruichi let out an irritated "raaaaaooooo!"

She darted off to where Robin had joined Bobby in collecting firewood and the nurse was boiling water. She rubbed herself against Robin's ankles. "Oh hey Shadow. Where were you? I wanted to introduce you to J'on, he's a telepath and he really likes kitties."

Yoruichi meowed and found a log to sit on and watch.

"oooooh, I was right she is yours." The man smiled. "Lemme give you boys a hand. Firewood isn't too hard to gather and Arkham has a nice view of the cloud out on the harbor."

"Hey Atom." Robin said with a huge grin. "I haven't seen you since you tutored me in physics."

"And how did that test go?"

"I got a B."

"Ah well, you aren't a physicist kid, Batman just thought the laws of motion would be useful to you the way you jump around all the time. And who's this?"

"My name's Bobby, mum's the warden!" The boy yawned. "Maaaan, all this work for my morning cup of tea."

"Really, you thinking of being a prison warden too when you grow up?" Atom asked the boy.

"Nope, I wanna be a computer technician. I can't wait for the scientists working on it to finish Quantum Cryptography. Anti hacking measures using that will be awesome fun to work with!"

"Oh really, so you know about the quantum cryptography experiment then..."

"I named my cat Shrodinger, what do you think?" Bobby asked with another huge yawn. "I can put a computer together from a bunch of spare parts. But when mine didn't set off my alarm this morning I started checking systems and found them all down."

"Yeah, I've got to figure out how a cloud of an unknown substance could cause an EMP, but they're more or less fried."

"Now an EMP is something I haven't heard of." Bobby grinned. "Will you explain it to me Mister Atom? I'm a big fan of yours."

"Sure..."

Yoruichi lay down on a nearby slab of pavement to listen.

* * *

Doctor Fate continued contemplating the blue fluid in the vial he'd brought with him while he worked. His magic was very useful for repairs and moving things about, and he'd put it to use putting together water filters in Gotham and to purify water from the chemicals that had polluted it.

He could mold it, he could bend it... but...

… it was immensely unstable for all the ease with which it could be collected and manipulated. For all its malleability, the substance juuuuust wouldn't take a stable form. Why?

Then the rumble of unstable machinery greeted Fate's ears. The old man that had been helping to erect the water filters had accidentally sent one off balance. It was wobbling. Fate caught the vat of sand and charcoal and mixed with silver iodide solution before it could hit the old man. "Watch your step." He carefully moved a half a dozen such vats into place. "We'll need a way for a person to carry a bucket of water up these. Hmmm..." Fate tried a couple of of the wooden bits residents had brought out for such a purpose. None of them seemed to hold their position right.

"Don't lean it." The man sighed, carefully stacking wooden crates. "You need a staircase. Just gotta secure these..." He was covered in sweat and out of breath, clearly not used to exercise.

"Not a bad idea, may I ask your name."

"He's Rupert Thorne, one sick sonuva bitch." A fat, bulky detective growled, striding over from the nearby firestation with a toolbox, a rather large one, on each shoulder. "Got the right idea though. A stair will be sturdier than a ladder. No rattling around." He extended a hand to shake. "Harvey Bullock, don't mind Thorne, we got reason to believe he's a mobster mafioso, but somehow every time we try to make an arrest he slips through our fingers when he gets to court."

"you can hold as many suspicions as you want Bullock, but the fact of the matter is, though my arrests are public record, I've never had a single conviction. Further, the only reason you got enough to arrest me is because of Batman. The supervillains call him a rat with wings. I like to think of him as a winged fox. Very spry and agile, very clever and determined."

"Just shut your god damn piehole Thorne and get building." Bullock slammed the toolboxes down. "I can't believe I got assigned to your daughter's block. You spoil the damn brat like she's some kinda princess and now I gotta listen to your slimy bullshit all day!"

Fate sighed and continued contemplating the issue of the pale blue substance that flowed with its user's will but exploded with little provocation.

* * *

"God damnit! All these chips are fried!" Booster Gold threw one of the broken motherboards at Gotham Light and Power on the ground in a fit of frustration. It joined an enormous pile of broken computer chips in the control room of the power plant.

"Youch! The hell is up with this weird blue lightning!?" Static had his head and upper body shoved into a control panel, but when sparked by the odd blue lightning he bumped his head on one of the panels and came out with a slightly singed glove and a bump on the head. "Lightning isn't supposed to hurt me! I can control it, my skill with controlling electricity is more developed than ever! WHY is this one little thing able to sting?" He stomped his foot, shaking his sore hand and rubbing the bump.

"Better than me, damn near knocked me out." Mister Terrific and Steel were busy carrying new computer hardware in from the javelin. "This entire plant's circuitry is fried. We're gonna be /days/ fixing this thing. The good news is though, the patrols found Gear and told him you were safe. He's going to pick up some tools from some hiding place at your motel room and then he's coming here to give us a hand. Just keep stripping those things Static. We got all the first aid equipment we need to take care of you if you get singed. And quite honestly, I think the only reason you're on your feet now instead of getting the wind knocked out of you like I did is /because/ you can manipulate electrcity."

Static sighed. "You guys had better have plenty of pain pills in that first aid kit..." he hissed a bit in pain. "And some burn salve. What I want to know is why I can't control this strange lightning. I feel almost like its nearly in my grasp but... just like a... a greased pig it gets away again." The young hero was getting more and more frustrated with the odd lightning that kept stinging him when he tried to handle it or came near it. "Urrggg, some chore! Isn't there some bank robbery somewhere I can handle to stretch my legs?"

"Just be glad the rioting hasn't started yet." Steel grumbled. "Folks have turned cities upside down for less than this. That said, there is a precident for a blackout in a major urban center with no rioting occuring. But it was still pretty hellish."

"Where?" Static narrowly avoided toppling the armload of fried computer parts he was carrying over, dumping them into a stray milk crate brought in for that purpose.

"New York, oh gosh about 2002ish." Steel scratched his head trying to remember the exact date. "no coffee, no access to ATMs, no air conditioning in the middle of summer, lots of people prying the caps off fire hydrants, ice cream trucks being sold out... craziness. Personally I think it was just so hot people didn't care about starting a riot." He started carefully assembling computer parts.

"There may be some reliable data on that..." Mister Terrific squinted over the mother board he was trying to assemble. "... guy awhile back did a study on crime rates and compared them to temperature data. Figured out that there was a ten degree window in which crime rates went down and after that they really went up."

Booster Gold chuckled. "I can picture a wide variety of criminals sprawled out in their hideouts whining. 'But booooosss, its too hot to rob a bank.'" The other two older heroes laughed. "Well its true! Thats what went through my head when you said that Mister Terrific."

Static sighed, letting the adults joke around. "I really want to know what that blue lightning is."

"Why don't you go find Doctor Fate. He, Zatanna and Etrigan are supposed to be studying those clouds above Gotham and Metropolis harbors. I think Fate was on the East side." Mister Terrific suggested.

"I thought I had stuff to do here..."

"Naw, Gear should be here in about half an hour. He'll take over your chore. Don't worry about it." Steel grinned. "Go on Static, go nurse your singed fingers."

"hahaha." The boy strode out of the plant and got out his saucer. A blue and gold coated figure lifted off into the sky soon after.

On Static's way to the east side, he passed easily one of the most interesting sights he'd seen today, Batman riding a horse. He was at a good hard canter with another horse in tow behind him on a lead line. The enormous black stallion he had with him was graceful enough to make Static's breath catch in his throat. He'd never seen a horse up close. This was a powerful animal, and yet he, and his herdmate behind him, were almost like an extension of Batman's body, like an extra arm or a leg.

Static paused, watching Batman handle the two creatures. Only the Dark Knight pulled up short, looking up and spotting Static in the sky. "Yo Bats! Just coming from the power company, going to see Doctor fate." Static called down.

"You haven't seen a horse before have you?"

"Me? Never been this close to one ever. I've only ever seen one on TV. Batman that is easily one of the most beautiful animals I've ever seen in my life. How'd you get them to obey you like that?" Static lowered himself down more. No need to hurry, Fate was probably busy anyway.

"Its not a relationship of master and slave Static. When I ride Duke, its a matter of teamwork. Not only do I ride him solely by his consent, but our hearts move and work as one. Horsemanship is an art of empathy, surly as I am, I can still feel empathy, sometimes too much of it." Batman rubbed Duke's neck. "Its a calming experience, and if a case has gone poorly, it can be a comforting one as well. Tell you what, I'll come find you later tonight, or you can have Fate warp you to whereever I am, and I'll teach you how to ride. Gear too if he's not busy. How's the power station?" (4)

"its a mess!" Static shook his head. "Every computer there is fried. Mister Terrific is starting with the easy stuff and he'll check the turbines last. Steel thinks he may be able to get some discounted parts that will work for it. Maaaaan, I've never seen so many fried computer chips!"

"An EMP is a dangerous phenomenon to have in a crowded city. Gotham is facing being forced back to the eighteen hundreds in technology level for months and economic losses are sure to be in the billions. Water born and food born illnesses will surely rise." Batman sighed and shook his head. "I'm a crimefighter, not a doctor, best I can do is make sure EMS can do their job safely."

"Steel said folks are vulnerable to rioting after something like this."

"Maybe not at first, give it a week or two when there's no microwaves, refrigeration or air conditioning."

"ouch." Static muttered.

"Good afternoon Batman..." Doctor Fate floated in.

"Ah, Doctor Fate, Static was just coming to see you. Static, this is Doctor Fate, Doctor Fate, this is Static."

"er, nice to meet you."

"Likewise. I've heard about you from the other League members." Doctor Fate indicated that Static should fly beside him. Batman urged Duke back into a canter, the empty gotham streets making high speed horse travel easy. He had to return the borrowed mount Batgirl was using to the police stables. The horse Batman had borrowed had been snapped up by a newly transferred detective from salt lake city. The man had been riding since the age of 5, or so he'd said, but his ease in the saddle had been obvious and so Batman hadn't worried.

Static quickly explained the mystery. "So this weird blue lightning, its actually able to burn me. I'm normally immune to electrical burns. To hurt me lightning would have to be wielded by a much, much stronger lightning user."

Doctor Fate hmmed for a moment. "Lets go have a look back at the power station." He opened an ankh warp and moved them both back to the power station Static had just left.

Gear was unpacking his toolkit. "Heeeey, Static."

"Yo buddy, sup?"

"Nothing much, I /am/ impressed at your company though."

"I came to have a look at a thorny problem Static encountered working here, that blue lightning."

"Oh yeah that stuff." Booster Gold had an ice pack on a very, very sore looking ungloved hand. "Look what it did to my hand Fate! How can that kid still be using his hand, I can't even grip the damn screwdriver right now."

"Static has a reputation of being a very flexible electricity user, I suspect this gave him partial resistance to the sparks giving you three trouble. Lets see your wounds and then I'll go out onto the turbine floor and see if I can catch sight of some of this lightning." Doctor Fate quickly managed to heal all three tech heroes' wounds and then motioned for the group to follow. He opened the reinforced door to the turbine's enormous floor. "Stand back..."

"Noooo... kidding." Gear's jaw hit the floor.

Everything that could be was sparking with long, thin, nasty looking bolts of pale blue lightning.

Fate sighed. "I have a containment field set up back at the tower for interesting energy samples. I should be able to channel this energy out of here to make it safe to work in. Let me have a good look." He floated out into the lightning storm and began to meditate.

Gear had to dodge one of the lightning bolts, as it was his boot got a nasty black singe mark on it.

The bolts of lightning seemed to bounce off of Doctor Fate's still form, as if he were a solid object.

"Ahah." Suddenly he came out of the trance. "This is not solely electricity, rather, natural lightning formed and then picked up the cloud energy flowing into this world which created a run away effect. Static, think you can pull the natural electricity out and funnel it out of the plant and into the sky?"

"Hmmm, I dunno. I haven't meditated or anything like that and its not like I have a sixth sense for lightning."

"No issue, I can use telepathy to coordinate our efforts. It would be a bit intrusive, but it could get the job done. After which, I will have to teach you. But that can wait for another time. Come." Fate shielded Static from the odd blue lightning as he floated out to meet him on his saucer.

Static took a sitting position on the saucer and closed his eyes. As did Fate.

_Now, try to see what I do... _Static was trying very, very hard to focus just on Fate's telepathic voice. But it was soooooo hard. He could see into Fate's thoughts and see bits and pieces of his life in the tower but... _FOCUS! Static the one image... accessing magic is primarily feel but is directed by visualization._

_Sooooo mannnnyyy imaggeeesss... _ . Static was finding it /extremely/ hard to focus. The telepathic link was dizzying! Disorienting!

Fate sighed to himself and realized that Static may not have the training to do what was needed. He took a slightly firmer hand, almost like a sleepy dog rolled over on its back. Fate carefully nudged Static's mind, the mental equivalent of gently gripping his head and turning it in the direction he wanted, the image of what he sensed, two energies merged to one. _Is that better?_

_YES VERY! _Static's mental tone was one of relief. _How do you stay /sane/ doing this?_

_Practice. Do you see what I sensed?_

_Yeah, this blue lightning has two components, both fairly painful. I think... _

_Now imagine an invisible hand reaching out to grip the lightning. _When he sensed Static had a grip, Fate opened an ankh warp _You must either hold the lightning still while I pull or you must pull the lightning free while I hold the energy still. _

_I'll pull, _Static grumbled. _Electricity doesn't like holding still. _

**The burst of electricity shot skywards and down underground sewer pipes. Though it knocked Killer Croc out far below and melted a weapons cache Two Face had abandoned months ago, few people not /at/ the power plant were effected physically. The blue energy was funneled through the ankh into the containment field Fate had set up at his tower.**

Far off, Batman watched the burst of lightning go up into the sky, but as it seemed Static had the burst under control said nothing.

Static broke out of the telepathic rapport with a gasp. Everything seemed bright and crisp around the edges. "my head hurts." he grumbled.

"You did well, I could tell you hadn't manipulated energy that subtle before. I can help you a little with finely tuned control. Massive shows of strength aren't typically my style however, you'd be coming to me for learning the most subtle uses of your element." Fate helped Static, who was wobbling wildly on his saucer in fatigue, back to the control room.

"Like what...?" Static was sooooo tired. The telepathic link, combined with the exposure to a type of power he couldn't control, magic and that odd blue stuff, all took their tool to render him /exhausted./

"get a cot from the javelin, set it up in the control room..." Fate was telling someone distantly. Given the colored blur and the small gold blur hovering behind it, he guessed it was Booster.

"Sure, man Fate what did you do that kid looks wasted!"

"Stretched his skills too far it seems." Static was carefully lowered to a cot, he could hear Gear's exclamation of surprise at his exhaustion. "Let him rest, Gear wasn't it? Static just pushed his control a bit too far. A good night's sleep should do it."

Static only roused when he felt the cot being levitated, his eyes cracked open, but it was only Fate moving him to the watchtower's infirmary.

* * *

1. I have one and a mess kit in my camping gear. An esbit stove is the size and about the weight of a small novel.

2. I can't stand thinking of the late Dennis Farina playing wildcat in this fic. I'm using partially his voice but mostly R. Lee Ermy's, who played Wildcat in "Batman the Brave and the Bold." Sorry Justice League fans, but I was a law and order fangirl long before I was a justice league one. I'm just missing detective Fontana (another of Farina's characters) far too much. When I write for a character, I "think" in their voice. Hence my writing like I really can hear the lines, because in my head I can. Please see the link below to see his full acting credits and excuse the switch in writing as the wording and accent will be adjusted to fit a different voice actor.  wiki/Dennis_Farina

3. Unlike the Pansies that censor American television, I have no issue whatsoever with Batman villains or any other DC character cussing like a drunken sailor who can't find a decent whore to suck him off.

4. I've handled a lot of animals the twenty six years I've been alive, and I've had basic lessons in horsemanship and seen what a skilled horseman with decades in the saddle can do. The relationship between horse and rider is an oddly spiritual one and unique in the amount of rapport required. Handling any animal takes empathy and attunement to its body language. But horses require calm immediacy, a sense of living in the moment and a very strong sense of attunement. This is a creature that could quite literally use you as a kick boxing heavy bag but can be startled by a trick as simple as stretching barbed wire across their path. They can be defiant demons or quiet angelic comforters depending on how they are treated by you, the rider. Horsemanship is almost certainly a skill Batman would develop. Although in "Once and future thing" he, John Stewart and Wonder Woman all were shown riding horses, I suspect that in practicality, really only Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman would possibly know how. The amazons have been depicted riding horses on occasion and they're a primative, magic based society. Batman is rich, and given the trauma of his parents death its likely Alfred would have tried to get him interested in horsemanship to try and soothe his anguish. Superman is a farm boy, and while farms mostly use machines for plowing and harvesting, many farmers still use horses and dogs for herding because machines aren't able to react with the immediacy that another animal would and messing up while herding cattle can get you killed.


	6. Alones

Bonus Content

**_Raise your Lantern to the Sky, and roar your defiance to the heavens_**

**_Raise your Zanpakuto to the moon, and mourn your lost country_**

**_So says the Guardian of Souls and the Reaper of Memories_**

**_So say the Refugees of scythe, wand, and bow_**

200 years before...

_The Oan Transport touched down in the Black hills. The hatch opened. The Green Lanterns that exited were escorting proud, powerful black and white robed figures, glittering with reishi, magic, and kidou. "Thank you for taking us home Ganthet." The witch at the lead turned and bowed politely to the guardian._

_"What will you do?"_

_"Build a new home. We will be a new tribe, a new family, a new clan!" A tall, broad shouldered native american man declared boldly. "I am a Sioux Dog Soldier, I drive my picket pin and I do not retreat. Our new shinigami, quincy, and magic using allies will help to bring a protective force to this world."_

_"But Oa is the center of the universe, and the rift that brought us here could open again. Its thin, spidery threads wind throughout the universe. Along those lines, anywhere along their length, another rift could appear. I will leave with you the ability to close them. Do what you do best, Guardians of the universe." The witch bowed politely, and levitated a small, glittering object into the guardian's hands. "Please, hold this close to your heart. You will most certainly need it again someday."_

_"And I will give you treasures for your newly formed squads. You have distinguished yourselves as warriors. All of you." Ganthet levitated a quartet of charms, white, black, green, and red to the witch, who smiled at him._

_"Thank you my friend. And I am sorry, you shall not see me among the living again. Now I believe two of my comrades must say their goodbyes."_

_"It will be hard living without the soul society." A woman in the omnikitsudo uniform muttered. "Little Soifon will have to go on without me."_

_"As will my Otooto." A tall man in the green lantern uniform replied from behind Ganthet. "But Byakuya is a stubborn little one." His Kensaiken had been tinted green with his ring energy. "Farewell Michelle. Take care of my cousins Meirin Fong, they are precious to me."_

_"Every so often Anonri will be given leave to visit earth, ten years on earth, ten on Oa, given his lifespan, he will have plenty of . When that happens he will be coming to perform his shinigami duties and live a normal life. Leave will be for years at a time. So he will have a chance to raise a family."_

_"Indeed, thank you Ganthet." The man smiled._

_"Anonri..." The woman in the omnikitsudo uniform smiled._

_"Hmm?"_

_"Congrats on becoming Oa's shinigami. You'll make a great green lantern. Ganbatte!" (1) The woman beamed, giving her former comrade a hug._

_"Thank you, Meirin, if you see Byakuya again, please tell him where I've gone. That I've never stopped doing my shinigami duties. I just do them on another planet."_

_"I will, I promise." Meirin smiled at him. "You will be missed my friend, I will be waiting for you!"_

_Ganthet sat up straight in his bed when the Guardian's name was called. "hmmmm?" He'd been dreaming about that dratted human witch again! Impish impish woman she had been. Mischievious, fun loving, but she took her duties seriously. This was the third night in a row he'd dreamed of their farewell. The woman had predicted her own death._

_"You've slept late my friend." The green lantern at the door, glittering green Kensaiken in his door, replied. "Two whole hours after the work day has started."_

_"Anonri, I dreamed about Michelle. You must ready yourself. Another rift will open soon. We must begin locating it."_

_"Very well." The Lantern Kuchiki nodded and turned to leave. "Ganthet..."_

_"I must ready myself, please hurry and find the rift."_

_"Yes sir."_

* * *

_Earth, normal chapter, two days after chapter five..._

Static wasn't happy with the situation in Gotham. He was stuck helping to build primative infrastructure and small, free standing oasis of solar and wind turbines, something called a "Gasifier engine" the smelly disgusting business of making biodiesel for the local ambulence garages, and shifting supplies around on specially made pallets of thinly hammered steel.

And all around he saw people in confusion over the lack of electricity, grumpy, irritable, but confused and tired all the same.

"Hey Atom?" He asked as he set the current pallet down.

"Hmm?" The professor was counting supply crates as Static unloaded them from the javelin.

"Do you think we're too dependant on electricity?"

"Me? no. I think we've lost the ability to function in day to day life without it. But I don't believe we're too dependant on it."

"What's that mean?"

"Well... our ancestors got along without electricity for thousands of years. The information we store on computers, they learned by word of mouth and scribe at the feet of the elderly. Almost everyone worked on farms and in fields. It left very few people around for scientific research and artistic or cultural pursuit. Believe it or not, 500 years ago an actor was a shameful profession to have, and while a difficult profession, farmers were well respected in their communities because they fed them. Now, everything's reversed. Very few people alive today know how to cope without the power grid. The electricity isn't the bad thing, its losing the ability to cope without it thats bad. Your friend Gear for example, what would happen to him if he didn't have a computer anymore. What would it do to him?"

"he'd probably go crazy." Static replied.

"Its the exact same way here." The Atom chuckled. "I'm a nerd, I don't do so well without electricity and computers and their conveinances."

"Ah..."

"Somethin wrong kid?"

"Its that cloud, and the blue lightning that came out of it. Even though I have doctor fate's explanation of what's known about it, I'm still feeling really uneasy." Static replied. "The whole situation makes me nervous."

"I unde..."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The burst of blue and black flame across the sky ripped through the Gotham Knights dome and tore a huuuugeee path all the way to the diamond district.

"Get the civilians to safety..." Atom ordered Static, pushing him and Gear from their posts and towards the local crowd. "... Watchtower! This is Atom! Gotham's just been firebombed!"

"WHAT?" Batman's pissed off voice demanded over the com. Atom heard the sound of foosteps running for the nearest javelin bay. "I'll be there in twenty! Who's guarding the place!"

"That would be me and Hawkgirl!" John Stewart shot into the sky. "Everyone else get the civilians underground! NOW!"

* * *

Up in the infirmary, Ichigo sat up straight in bed. "What the hell? I feel almost fine! What's going on?"

"ICHIGO!" Zatanna ran in. "Something just firebombed Gotham!"

"firebombed? What color?"

"I beg your pardon."

"THE FLAMES! WHAT COLOR WERE THEY?" Ichigo demanded.

"Blue and Black..." Zatanna replied. "Why?"

"I have to go! They're gonna need me!" Ichigo yelled.

"no way!" Zatanna shoved Ichigo back. "GL and Hawkgirl will take care of it."

"You don't understand! Whoever fights that guy will die!" Ichigo yelled.

"Calm DOWN Ichigo!" Zatanna cried as he struggled against her grip.

Four medics had to subdue and sedate Ichigo, not realizing until it was too late how accurate and how dire his warning would be.

* * *

John Stewart surveyed the damage to the city, and then he got a visual for the watchtower on the individual that was floating above the carnage. He could see charred or partial skeletons below, signs of life cut brutally short. "Who are you?"

The man wore white robes, had short black hair and a bone like helmet on the left side of his head. His eyes were unearthly green, his alabaster skin had a faint jade green, otherworldly glow to it. Two tear streak like markings reached from his eyes to his chin. He had a hole at the base of his throat near the collar bone.

"Ulquiorra Schiffer... your death... you are a green lantern?"

"So you know of us, what I want to know is how?"

In an instant the man was right in front of John, looking up at him with eyes full of disgust. "Because Lantern Trash, 200 years ago I nearly killed one of your guardians." BOOOOOOOOOM! Ulquiorra punched John Stewart /through/ a nearby charred wall. Straight through it.

Hawkgirl swept in and beamed Ulquiorra across the back of the head with her mace.

Ulquiorra caught her wrist. "You are fast, and that mace actually hurt me. You will be a far worthier opponent than your friend." He didn't even turn around, and Hawkgirl could see greenish black blood flowing from the wound to his head. "However, it will take more than that to dissuade me. You are fortunate in one aspect though..." BOOM! Another earth shaking punch as the fight began in earnest, a punch that Hawkgirl caught bare handed at the cost of her knuckles and hand bones crunching at the effort."

Above them, a series of brilliant golden streaks of light fell from the rift, one, two, three, four, five...

"you think you can dissuade me reaper SCUM?" Ulquiorra roared in rage. "YOU'RE NOTHING BUT GARBAGE, TRASH TRASH, EVERYWHERE TRASH FROM THE ANTS ON THE GROUND TO YOU DAMNED BIRDS TWITTERING AROUND MY HEAD ALL OF YOU, HUMAN AND REAPER, YOU ARE ALL TRASH!" Ulquiorra fired a burst of bluegreen light at the cluster of lights.

They were forced to scatter about Gotham. Only one of the lights actually made it to the battlefield. Ulquiorra put on a burst of super speed to catch the last, which bounced once, twice, three times and then... "OUUUUUCHIIIIIEEEE!" A girl with a large bustline and brilliant orange hair fell from the light burst. She got up and dusted herself off. The girl was wearing a Japanese school uniform and mumbling something in Japanese.

"Well well well, pitiful little princess Orihime." Ulquiorra snickered, he put on a burst of super speed and used it to push Orihime off of the rooftop where they'd fallen. Hawkgirl darted to catch the girl. When she came back up again Ulquiorra and John were furiously trading blows. She could tell, John was at a major speed disadvantage. Ulquiorra wasn't giving him time to form a clear construct. All John could do was punch, kick and blast. Ulquiorra met every burst of hard light he gave with bursts of some kind of red energy and some he even stopped with his bare hands. All John could do was react, react, throw a blow into a split second opening, and react some more.

Hard light was clearly not strong enough to cause much damage to Ulquiorra. Not by blunt force trauma, not by piercing wounds, not by burning or slashing.

"STOP! SANTEN KESSHUN I REJECT!" Orihime yelled. A triangular orange shield blocked Ulquiorra's next blow to John Stewart's diaphram. The shield held, and then shattered. Ulquiorra grabbed Shun'o and squeezed her. The fairy screamed in agony. Orihime gasped in a mixture of shock and pain.

_He's moving too fast. _John realized. _And his skin is being hardened somehow. I can see the impact sites, he isn't even bruised or cut. But I have to try and drive him off, look what he did to Gotham... if he's allowed to roam freely in our world he'll burn it to the ground!_

"Heh, just as I suspected. Weak Justice League scum... do you know what the difference is between you and me?" Ulquiorra grinned as he powered up another Cero Oscuras.

"I don't char people to death for no reason." John snarled in defiance.

"Wrong... I'm willing to kill, you, green lantern of earth, /you/ are disgusted by the demons of war, constrained by mortal morality. You are therefore weak, and do not deserve to live." Ulquiorra replied flatly. He leveled the cero oscuras at Hawkgirl, who snatched Orihime out of the way just in time. "The truth is that in the end, /everyone/ dies and the universe is a savage terrifying place. Humans like you simply delude themselves into thinking they're somehow better than that and therefore worthy of continuing on."

Though she had avoided a direct blow, Hawkgirl's right wing... the piece of anatomy that had given thenigarians an advantage over many opponents over the centuries, was singed painfully. The wingtip, a piece of it about the size of her hand, simply charred. The flesh was turned to ash, the bone sticking out of the gruesome wound. The flames were so hot there wasn't even any blood.

Orihime screamed in fear, dragging Hawkgirl under the cover of a nearby alley.

Ulquiorra shoved John Stewart repeatedly into the pavement on the other side of the building, kicking, punching, pummeling him with this and pure reiatsu. There were bursts of hard light and reiatsu exchanged, Orihime couldn't see what was going on. But to Hawkgirl it was clear without direct line of sight. Ulquiorra was barely giving John an opening for a counter attack.

Hawkgirl got up, raising her mace with her one good hand. "NO DON'T GO!" Orihime cried, calling out her shun shun rikka.

"I have to, he'll kill my friend if this keeps up. John is giving him pretty good but..." Hawkgirl knew when her comrade was outmatched.

"Let me heal you..." Shun'o groaned quietly. She floated, wings battered and broken. "it will leave me very weak for awhile... but I... should be able to... please... you'll die... Orihime wills it..."

Orihime added, trying to swallow her tears. "I can... heal you... please save your friend..."

She called her Shunshun rikka to heal Hawkgirl, it didn't take long, seconds really. But all Hawkgirl could think about in that time was getting to John and trying to protect him somehow."

"You know why I hate the Green Lantern Corps?" Demanded Ulquiorra. "You remind me of the high and mighty reaper scum that decided my kind were too disgusting and vile to be allowed to exist. Who gave the guardians permission to protect the universe hmm? Well? If it was God I would gladly like to have him tell me so."

John was struggling by the hand at his throat and the clawed foot on his gut. Ulquiorra kicked, hard, then punched against the lantern's sternum. "KOTEN ZANSHUN! I REJECT!" Ulquiorra suddenly found himself minus a hand. He whirled on Orihime. The rage in her eyes would have been terrifying to her human friends. "ULQUIORRAAAAAAA!" The shield that Orihime normally used to protect clobbered Ulquiorra headlong like a battering ram. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU TRYING TO KILL PEOPLE IN FRONT OF MY EYES JUST TO SHOW ME HOW WEAK I AM! I'M TIRED OF BEING THE DAMSEL HELD HOSTAGE BY YOU, THE DRAGON, AND NOW I REJECT YOU!" Orihime shrieked, a look of loathing on her face and tears of anguish rolling down her cheeks.

Ulquiorra had little effort holding back Orihime's shield. But Tsubaki was ripping huge gashes across his back. When Orihime finally ran out of breath to scream she stood there, panting exhaustedly. Her shunshun rikka were utterly drained.

THUD! John fell to the ground, holding up his ring hand feebley. He had no choice. This creature had come for his life and there was a good chance he'd get his wish. "Ring search..." A blur of green light as the ring slipped from his hand and John Stewart slipped from consciousness. And his ring didn't have far to search.

The ring floated over to Orihime. Tap, tap tap... it tapped against her back as if to say 'hellooooo here I am!'

Orihime jumped, bringing her hands up to protect herself from what she thought was another attack, only...

The ring slipped onto her hand. A burst of brilliant green light enveloped her. Orihime blinked. She was wearing a skin tight green, black and white uniform. Orihime had a knee length skirt and tights, and thin, but none the less sturdy boots. A thin, delicate mask, just a simple bar of green covered her eyes. Paler green whisps of material floated from the back of her uniform, vaguely resembling fairy wings. Ulquiorra sneered. "Yet more proof the Green Lantern Corps is useless, weak, sentimental trash. Look at their newest member. Do me a favor and let me know when his funeral is... I do so look forward to dessecrating his grave."

Ulquiorra flew back towards the rift over the harbor. Hawkgirl stood there for a moment in absolute shock at the creature's hostility and disregard for life. This was worse than the false god that had terrified her people for so long. The false god had desired worship along with his souls, this creature didn't care about worship, just destruction and carnage.

Then Hawkgirl roared in a fit of abject rage. "YOU MONSTEEEEEERRRRR!" Ulquiorra stopped her mace with the palm of his hand, dark greenish black blood flowed from the wound. "Enclose, Murcielgo..." Ulquiorra sprouted bat wings, his helmet flattened out and reached across his entire head. "... at least you may one day grow to be a worthy opponent. But if you face me like this, you will die." He punched Hawkgirl, and she went flying backwards. Ulquiorra paused as she righted herself.

"I am an Espada..." He continued. "The fourth strongest of ten especially skilled and accomplished killers. Each of us Espada stand for a different cause of death for mortal beings. Do you know what /I/ stand for? Despair. Plain and simple. Its an odd, odd form of death. Despair can kill, but it can also drive warriors to become more powerful." Ulquiorra said quietly. "I learned that the hard way... perhaps you will too." And then he was gone. Just gone.

Orihime knelt by the fallen Lantern, holding his hand and sobbing near hysterically. "Santen kesshun! I reject!" Nothing happened. Her Shunshun rikka, with the exception of an extremely fired up Tsubaki, floated listlessly in the air, simply unresponsive.

"SANTEN KESSHUN, I REJECT!" Orihime could feel a faint pulse under her fingers, why weren't her Shunshunrikka working? "SANTEN KESSHUN, I REJECT!" Still nothing, Orihime was starting to panic now. Orihime's shriek of rage and anguish pierced the gloom of the smoke from Ulquiorra's cero.

"SOMEBODY HELP PLEASE!" Orihime yelled her despair to the heavens.

And somebody came...

The Batplane made it first, circling in while Hawkgirl tried to assess the damage ulquiorra had done to John. "Get me something to stem the bloodflow!"

Orihime nodded, getting up and stumbling over to a singed shop banner. She grabbed it and started tearing it into strips even as she hurried to Hawkgirl. "Lucky for you I took a course in battlefield medicine back on Thanigar. Your healing technique didn't work?"

Orihime shook her head. "The shun shun rikka that channel my power aren't responding."

All of a sudden the six fairy like beings that had been floating around Orihime disappeared. The final piece of her green lantern uniform floated into place. Two brilliant, emerald green hairpins, one on each side, and shaped like brilliant green stars with long points that stood up above her head.

Another figure zoomed into view... and another... first Superman, then Static, then Flash ran over the hill. Batman landed the bat plane nearby. "good god..." Flash's reaction was pure horror. Charred bodies, vaporized ruts cut into the city, obscene items flashing signs of life brutally cut short.

"He's still got a pulse, we've got to get him to the watchtower."

"I'll escort him. You aren't looking so good yourself."

"We'll investigate here." Batman added. "Get John to the medical ward quickly."

Flash tapped his communicator. "This is Flash, we have a medical emergency, Green Lantern is critical, get us up there now!" John Stewart and Flash disappeared in a burst of light.

Orihime's crying became quieter, but it didn't stop. She just huddled there in a ball, sobbing. "Not again, I was too weak again... why can't Ulquiorra just leave me alone... why...?" She sobbed softly enough that most of the others couldn't hear her. "Why's he have to hurt people just to hurt me?"

Superman heard though, he didn't have super hearing for nothing. He scooped Orihime up, "C'mon..."

Orihime squeaked. "Where are we going?" She sniffled through her tears.

"Someplace safe where you can rest." John's injuries were seriously depressing to Superman. First J'on burned his hand, and now John was seriously injured and Hawkgirl's hand was looking very, very swollen.

There was a flash of light, and Orihime was suddenly standing in some kind of shuttle bay. "Welcome to the watch tower. Wish it were under better circumstances."

There was a huge blur of red and gold. "Mission accomplished supes." Flash grinned, though it had a sad edge to it. "The docs are working on him now. Its not looking good though. The doctor says something got ruptured and..."

Orihime set up a fresh howl of anguish.

"Hey now don't cry." Flash dabbed at Orihime's eyes. "I'm Flash, cause I'm fast. What's your name?"

"O... Orihime..." Orihime hiccuped. "I don't have any real offensive powers, I'm just a healer, thats really all I can do... Ulquiorra keeps picking on me for it. Every time he attacks since last winter he's made a point of beating up my friends in front of me and calling me weak for it." Orihime whimpered.

"awwww, that sucks, you have no idea how useful a healer would be up here at the watchtower." Flash grinned.

"Really?" Orihime hiccuped.

"Uhuh."

"Flash, Amanda Waller is probably taking her tea and paperwork in the mess right now. Run ahead, make tea for two, and tell her we have a distressed visitor and a very serious injury. I'll have to tell her what's happened in Gotham I might as well do it now."

Orihime buried her face in Superman's chest, suddenly immensely shy. The tears wouldn't stop coming. The only one of her shunshun rikka that was responsive was Tsubaki and he was busy gloating.

"Got it supes." Flash darted off again.

"Yoruichi would love to race him." Orihime mumbled listlessly.

"She got super speed?" Superman asked.

"Uhuh, and she's a super awesome martial artist who can turn into a talking cat!" Orihime hiccuped. "I came here to find my friends but... I ended up being the one needing help." Orihime drooped.

Superman carefully flew the girl up to the mess hall. A tall, swarthy old man in a cat costume entered. "How ya doin Supes?" He asked in a crotchety, gravely voice.

"Escorting a guest Wildcat, things just went pretty far south in Gotham."

"yeh don't say. Batman swallow his pride yet and consent to have a full complement help him out?"

"Nope." Superman sighed.

"Dun worry Superman, if there's one thing thats certain its that Batman will do anything to protect Gotham even at the expense of his own health and sanity. Once he crunches the numbers and figures out he's out gunned he'll either turn to sabotage or ask yeh to send help on the condition that /he/ supervises whoever gives him a hand."

Orihime looked from one, to the other, confused.

"Its John that worries me now Wildcat. Batman only wanted two of us seniors in Gotham at once. Flash and I actually supersped ourselves in from our home cities."

"How bad was it."

"Bad enough he had to initiate a ring search. I've got to notify Waller and call Oa. I'm not looking forwards to either chore."

"Yep, notifying folks of that kinda thing is a chore. She the one the ring picked?"

"yeah..." Orihime squeaked, a pair of elderly grey blue eyes peering out from a cat shaped cowl were peering down at her.

"Cute 'un, doesn't quite look up to John's level." The man, Wildcat Orihime took note of the name, gently touseled her hair in a grand fatherly way. "Whelp, if she's staying for any extended period of time I expect to see her in my martial arts classes bright and early, 9 am every morning." He was smiling at her, Orihime was just too distraught to appreciate the sympathy he was regarding her with.

The lift opened, Superman got out, bidding Wildcat goodbye. Flash was standing by a table where a severe, heavy set african woman was sipping tea and working on paperwork. "Flash said things went south in Gotham."

"The damage is horrific." Superman set Orihime down. "Orihime you said your name was?"

"Hai, Orihime Inoue desu." Orihime said shyly. "Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu..."

"Amanda Waller, government liason to the Justice League. The job is primarily paperwork and people skills." Waller smiled at Orihime, trying to calm the girl down a bit.

"This girl knows who John's attacker is, appearantly the monster who did it likes to hurt and kill people in front of her just to mock her. As far as I'm concerned she's staying here until we sort this out. The watchtower is the safest place she could possibly be."

"Are you sure of that... how bad was it at Gotham?" Waller asked.

"Horrific." Flash replied. "I saw skeletons half vaporized in those ruins."

"Vaporized?" Waller's eyes widened in shock.

"yeah, half the skeleton gone and the other half /charred/ to a crisp." Flash shook slightly.

"Have some tea Flash. Who's on cleanup? I'm going to contact the "

"Bats, John and Hawkgirl were on duty. So Bats and Hawk Girl plus the lower level guys that were helping clean the place up. Diana went to visit her mother and should be back any minute." After some searching, Diana and Hypolytta had found a small islet near Themiscyra and built a small compound on it. Because it wasn't technically part of the island but also was still in Themiscyran waters mother and daughter could meet there to visit and talk.

"Does she know what goes on while she's gone?"

"No."

"Then collect your wits and think about how best to break the news to her. Where's Hawkgirl?"

"Down planet side helping EMS. Her hand wasn't looking so good."

Orihime drooped.

"Then make sure she gets something for the pain and swelling and to hold the limb still." Waller sighed, putting a headset on and flicking on her laptop. "Ms. Hall, I know you aren't planning on helping at a disaster scene when you're injured."

"Its horrific Waller, I can't just sit by for a sore hand! If it wasn't for that new girl I wouldn't even be flying. Saved my wing. Tell her thanks for me when you meet her."

"She's right here and she's not leaving the station till she's calmed down and had a good cup. /You/ young lady are to turn around, fly to the nearest ambulence, get pain medication to help with the swelling and a brace for your hand /before/ you do anything more. We have two senior members of the justice league injured, one of whom is stuck riding a desk, I will not have a third. Get that hand seen to or step out." Waller's tone was clearly that of a soldier's commanding officer.

"yes ma'am." Just as Waller signed off Orihime heard a feral scream of frustration from the laptop.

Waller smiled wanly at Superman. "When you're a woman trying to make it in what is traditionally a man's profession, sometimes a fellow woman will be listened to when a man will not."

The incident had gotten the attention of several of the superheroes currently eating in the mess hall, who now got to their feet and walked over to find out what was going on. Orihime blushed and bowed her head a bit as she realized she was getting a lot of curious stares.

"Supes what's happened?"

"Superman what's the matter with Hawkgirl?" A couple of others were doing their paperwork in the mess hall too. After Waller became the liaison between the Justice League and the government, paperwork in the mess with tea and some kind of light snack had become a refuge for some of the league's quieter members.

Orihime wilted as she heard Superman relate what had happened, and wilted even more when about half of those present ran out, presumably to go down to Gotham and help or find out what John's status was. "WHAT HAPPENED?" A tall, imperious looking woman with long black hair and wearing an brightly colored armored leotard of some sort strode into the mess. A lasso was clipped to her belt and large silver bracelets were on her wrists. Orihime looked up at her, reminded strongly of Soifon cloned with Rangiku and dressed like a rodeo performer.

"John's in the ER." Waller stated.

"WHO PUT HIM THERE?" demanded the woman.

"Ulquiorra." Orihime mumbled, tears welling up in her eyes all over again.

The severe woman sobered, looking down at Orihime, blinking in surprise as she noted the uniform and ring. Orihime squirmed, blushing furiously.

"You two seemed to know each other." Superman pointed out, looking over at Orihime.

"Ulquiorra doesn't like me, he seems to have a special grudge against me out of all my friends, like Grimmjow does with Kurosaki-kun."

"Kurosaki? As in Ichigo Kurosaki?" The woman blinked, looking over at Superman, a look of comprehension dawning on their faces.

"ALRIGHT WHO'S THE IDIOT WHO SEDATED ME WHEN THERE WAS AN ARRANCAR ATTACKING GOTHAM!?" Ichigo burst into the mess hall, roaring at the top of his lungs. "I'VE FOUGHT THAT PUNKASS ULQUIORRA BEFORE I CAN DO IT AGAIN! AND I CAN BEAT HIM TOO!"

Orihime's eyes widened, her expression brightened. "KUROSAKI-KUN!" She pounced Ichigo, tears of joy flooding down her face instead of anguished ones. "OMIGOD I MISSED YOU SOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Orihime?" Ichigo's eyes widened. "What are you doing here?"

"We came looking for you and Yoruichi-san!"

"She's here too?" Ichigo blinked in surprise.

"Isn't she with you?" Orihime's eyebrows went up.

Ichigo shook his head. "No, though I wouldn't know if she was I've been in the infirmary fading in and out of consciousness for like, days now."

"Which is WHY I prevented you from going down planetside to an UNFAMILIAR CITY when you had JUST RECOVERED!" A black haired woman in a magician's leotard and a top hat strode in. "But do you listen to me? Maybe show a bit of gratitude? No, you go tearing the fuck off like the hounds of hades were on your heals!"

The other black haired woman took one look at the frustrated expression on the second woman's face and started laughing. "Zatanna you should see the expression on your face."

"Princess?" The magician woman looked confused.

"it was identical to mine a few minutes ago!" The first woman laughed.

Orihime blinked, utterly confused.

"I COULD HAVE HANDLED IT, I'VE BEATEN HIM BEFORE YOU KNOW! JUST LIKE I'VE BEATEN GRIMMJOW!"

"you didn't look like you'd beaten him." Zatanna said dryly.

"It was about three months ago. And /this/ time Grimmjow /ambushed/ me."

Ichigo argued with Zatanna the way he did Karin. Lately Hitsugaya had been visiting the Kurosaki house while he was on patrol and even sleeping over in Karin and Yuzu's room, sleeping on a spare futon. Ichigo had berated Karin for having a boy over and Hitsugaya for trying to "make moves on my sister you pervert!"

"Um..." Orihime blinked, still processing the events she'd been through that day.

"What?" Superman looked over when Orihime started to speak.

"What did it mean when Ulquoirra said he'd nearly killed a Guardian?"

Shock crossed the face of Superman, Zatanna, and Wonderwoman. "ulquiorra said he'd nearly killed a what?"

"Two hundred years ago. When he said it, John-san looked really frightened." Orihime said meekly.

"I don't know. But I have to call Oa anyway if you guys can give me enough time between pouncing on me and demanding the same bit of information one after another." Superman gave this wane smile. He wasn't in a good mood but he was trying to put on a brave face for the others. He was a leader, he had to keep an optimistic outlook on things for those who counted on him.

Orihime's eyes watered again. Ichigo hugged Orihime tightly. "Go, Orihime's my friend, I'll keep an eye on her."

"I will too." The taller of the two women sighed. "I'm no good at relief efforts, everyone knows this, as long as there's no action going on..."

"I wouldn't let you anyway, its not your shift, you start at 9 am tomorrow." Superman replied. "Diana I meant what I said about sticking to a strict schedule. Wildcat could have killed himself working to exhaustion during the flooding last month."

Diana sighed. "Wildcat is an honorable warrior for a man, but he's getting old, and he tends to forget that his body has limits like that of any mortal."

Orihime was very happy, even if she was distressed over the Green Lantern being beaten up by Ulquiorra. Ichigo was here, it was going to be okay again.

* * *

Then, a few minutes after Superman went to the next room to call Oa, Orihime heard a loud, baritone voice yell "WHAT?" in shock. "HANG ON JOHN I'M COMIN FOR YA!"

"Kilowag calm down!"

"BUT HAL HE'S ONE OF US AN HE GOT STRUCK DOWN BY A..." (2)

The voices had the tinny quality of being on a transmitter of some kind.

Orihime snapped, slamming her cup of tea down on the table and striding over to the video phone room. "YOU WANT YOUR FRIEND'S POWER BACK TAKE IT! I HAVE POWERS OF MY OWN UNDER THIS THING AND I WANT THEM BACK!" Orihime yelled, tears rolling down her cheeks as she tried to pry the ring off her finger, rather comically infact because the ring wouldn't come off and eventually all she ended up with was a sore finger. "I'M NO WARRIOR! ALL I COULD DO WAS HEAL AND SHIELD PEOPLE!"

"Orihime!" Ichigo dashed in, pulling Orihime back.

"Ichigo... my shun shun rikka... only Tsubaki can answer me! The other five won't say anything to me." Orihime sobbed into his chest. "And Tsubaki... look at him!" Orihime summoned Tsubaki, who promptly started doing a victory "booty dance" through the air.

"I'M THE BEST YEAH YEAH, LOOK AT ME, YEAH YEAH, WHO'S THE MAN? I'M THE MAN! WOOO OOOO." It didn't escape Hal's notice that Orihime's summons was wearing a green lantern uniform, and that the other shunshun rikka that appeared, floating unresponsively in the air as though catatonic, were glowing with green hard light.

Ichigo tried to comfort his friend. Orihime wasn't a fighter, she was distressed, disoriented by her new abilities, and extremely upset. "Orihime was my team's healer. As she said, she isn't suited to the life of a warrior. I don't know exactly what happened down there but... I've never seen her this upset."

"Ulquiorra... he beat up... he beat up..."

"He beat up our friend in front of her." Superman finished. "John Stewart, green lantern, he's fighting for his life in the ER right now."

Ichigo bowed his head. "I'm sorry."

"He taunted me... Ichigo he keeps mocking me because I can't fight very well." Orihime sobbed. "He keeps hurting you, and Ishida-kun, and Sado-kun and everyone else because he's trying to upset /me!/"

"I believe the hollows call it marking someone as prey. Certain people they just feel an overpowering desire to pursue, torment, and generally just harm."

"What worries me is what Orihime overheard him say to John."

"And that was?" Ichigo asked.

"Ulquiorra said that 200 years ago, he'd nearly killed a Guardian, and that Stewart-san was trash compared to him and he'd kill him..." Orihime couldn't remember exactly what was said but...

"If thats so, he should be in the Green Lantern records, do you have his full name?" A bird like green lantern interjected from the edge of the camera's range.

"Ulquiorra Schiffer." Ichigo replied. "He's got black hair, wears white robes, helmet like mask on his head, hole near his collar bone, green eyes with slitted pupils and green streaks from his eyes."

The bird like lantern shuddered. "For an enemy who wears our color, he seems more interested in breaking wills than he is in using his own. Such a waste." And he was off.

"Wills?" Orihime looked confusedly at Hal for an explanation.

Hal smiled at her. "There are seven different colors of a substance called "hard light" plus white and black, which symbolize life and death respectively. Each color stands for a different emotion. Red is anger, orange is greed, yellow is fear, green is will, blue is hope, indigo is compassion and violet is love. Orihime is it? You look quite shy, but tell me, surely you have some will power in there. Some kind of inner strength. If you weren't worthy the ring would have flown to someone else, even if it had to search the entire planet. Over six billion people on earth and it chose you."

Orihime blinked, then looked down at the ground. (3) "I was so tired of it, so tired of people getting hurt to protect me. So tired of being mocked by everyone else. Of being the group's standing joke. I came to this dimension to find my friend. I thought he might need help. He was all alone without any of us there to comfort him. Kurosaki-kun, he fights because we're here, we're his will to go on fighting. If he didn't have us... I honestly think he'd have died a long time ago. Everyone else on my team has grown strong, and here I am, still having to be protected like a damsel in distress... I'm SICK OF IT! It makes me miserable every time I see them fight. All I can do is heal their wounds... I can't keep them from getting hurt in the first place. I'm sick of feeling helpless."

Orihime thought of the rest of her team, Ichigo, Uryu, Sado, of Rukia's pending promotion to Lieutenant and how Renji desperately wanted to be the one to present her with her lieutenant's badge. Of course, Rukia didn't know yet. Renji and Byakuya had called Orihime to visit them to try to figure out how the three of them could surprise her with the news. And then this mission had come up.

* * *

Tomar ran to the chamber where the Book of Oa was kept, nearly mowing down Ganthet he flew so fast. "Calm down Tomar, what is it?"

"Sorry sir, I'm to look up an enemy combatant called Ulquiorra Schiffer immediately in the book."

Ganthet's eyes widened. "no need, I was there and witnessed his attack first hand. Who is inquiring."

"The justice league sir! Ulquiorra's been spotted on Earth."

"I must go to them immediately. Tomar, run and get Anonri, tell him Ulquiorra's come back and to grab his go bag for immediate deployment! Hurry!" Ganthet tore off down the hall as fast as he could fly. If Ulquiorra was back, not only was the Justice League in trouble but so was all of earth!

* * *

"Dun worry lil Poozer, I've seen some pretty weak lookin Lanterns become strong, independent and capable." Kilowag told her. "Maybe Katma should go instead of me. After all, the ring went to a woman."

"Doing that on account of her gender is sexist." Hal told him. "Besides, you heard her, she's tired of being coddled. The ring chose her, for now she's just a temporary replacement for John. I'm sure he'll be okay."

"The transport will be ready for the two of you within the hour." A small man with blue skin and wearing red and white robes entered the camera's range, having flown at a very fast pace. "I'm sending a third lantern, Anonri with you."

"Ganthet! But I thought Anonri was your personal aide."

"Wrong, 200 years ago he saved my life from Ulquiorra. Since then he has been the Green Lantern Corps foremost hollow specialist, one of six." Ganthet settled himself in front of the camera.

"You know about hollows?" Ichigo blinked in surprise. "how..."

"200 years ago a garganta opened above Oa. Hollows and those that fought them poured through. From what I later learned, a war between humans and the species called shinigami had escalated out of control, tearing a hole in space and time. The rift merged with a powerful vasto lordes' garganta and dumped over three hundred combatants from that war and civilians from dimensions near to theirs into our laps. But we are guardians of this universe only. In the end we couldn't figure out how to get them home. Since they were from earth, we resettled them on this universe's earth. That was the last I heard of them."

"Then that vasto lordes..." Ichigo looked over at Orihime nervously.

"Was Ulquiorra. Before we sent him packing, I joined with the power of a very very powerful magical healer to curse Ulquiorra forever to be marked with the Lantern Corps color. He takes pride in his ability to bring people to despair, so we decided it was fitting to remind him of his exact opposites." Ganthet finished. "And that is why Ulquiorra is marked in green."

Orihime blinked. "Then he... then Ulquiorra's..."

"There you see Orihime?" Ichigo asked reasonably. "Ulquiorra attacking Stewart-san had nothing to do with you." Ichigo tried to comfort Orihime.

"Now your tea is getting cold." Amanda Waller stuck her head into the video phone antechamber to the mess.

"See you later little poozer, Hal and I will give you a call later! It'll take us a week or two to get to earth. And as for you Kurosaki, you protect her. If John dies she has to replace him, she becomes the Green Lantern of earth in his place and someone gets sent to train her. A rookie lantern is vulnerable because they haven't learned how to properly use their ring just yet. I'm a training officer, so I'll be coming to monitor her. Even if John lives, somebody's gonna have to pick up the slack while he recovers, hence why Hal is coming with us." Kilowag grinned. "Gosh she's cute, if I were there in front of her I'd be tousling that pretty orange hair like an overly protective big brother."

Orihime stood there, staring at Kilowag on the monitor in surprise.

"heh, you're right, okay, she'll be the corps little sister. Anyway, we'd better pack our bags." Hal grinned at his friend.

"Agreed. We'll call you later Orihime. See you!" Kilowag cut out the transmission.

Orihime blinked in surprise, blushing slightly, thinking of Sora, and a little bit, of Ichigo. "How many spirit brothers am I gonna get before the war's over...?" She wondered.

* * *

Uryu did something he normally did not do from atop the closed Iceberg lounge, he meditated. He could feel reishi flooding the city. All of his attacks were going to be more powerful as a result of this. He needed to get a decent idea of the amount of reishi /and/ the rate at which it was flowing in as well as where it was going.

* * *

Rukia needed to find a place to take shelter while she used Kido to heal her burns. She crawled into an empty stall in the police horse stables, pulling a straw covered wool blanket that smelled of horse fur and lanolin polish around her while she concentrated on healing the cero burns Ulquiorra had inflicted. She could sense the bursts of reiatsu from Ulquiorra, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern's fighting, then Orihime's reiatsu flare, focus and compress, and then fall back to a resting state. Then her reiatsu suddenly jumped a massive distance away, like trying to spot a single building in a city from atop a hill at its edge. "hang on Orihime, please stay safe."

* * *

Kensei had found his way to some kind of boxing gym, it didn't take him long to strike up a rapport with the trainer and get a temp job and a room while he was in the area. He'd quite a few bruises from Ulquiorra's attack, but had managed to use his reiatsu to protect himself. Not to mention, he was pretty hard headed. A gran rey cero like that? Fah! Ulquiorra would have to do better than that to put him out of commission.

* * *

Renji crawled into the frigid, ruined lab. Cryogenics equipment, shattered to shards and twisted scraps of metal as if by some bizzare show of force littered the darkened depths. Some searching revealed a medkit, which he used to bandage up and disinfect the laceration on his leg, the huuuugeee scrape on his shoulder from pavement burn, and the large, heavily bleeding cut in his forehead from the window the force of Ulquiorra's blast had shoved him through.

While he waited for the painkillers he'd injected into his wounds to start working, Renji looked around for any clues to the former inhabitant's identity, but the only truly undamaged personal item in the entire place was a snowglobe, sitting on a desk. Yeah, of all the keepsakes somebody had had in this damned place, a snowglobe had to be the one item they'd keep.

Renji managed to find a few useful items, flash lights, batteries, medicines, even some sort of nutrient bar ration. Clearly the owner of the lab had a kurotsuchi like mindset, so he left anything he couldn't identify and grumbled about the lack of comforts like say, a decent bed and pillow. Then Renji tripped over some kind of cord. "TEEEWWWWWW!" A large crystal of ice appeared on the wall. "Woaaaah..." Renji tried to touch the crystal and yelped. It was so cold it burned! His skin was red and blistering from the cold! Fumbling around the debris yielded a small pistol like device with a canister for an ammo clip that Renji hooked to his belt. Renji sucked at Kido, and he rather thought that this gun might be able to level the playing field a bit.

Using a thin linen sheet, Renji made a furoshiki pack. He put all of these into it, he had food and water in his backpack already. He found two more canisters that looked like they went to the odd looking pistol and added them. Then he tore the remaining sheets he'd found into strips for bandages, used what he needed for his wounds and rolled up the rest.

Five minutes later Renji slipped out of the ruined lab and into the crowd of people in the streets moving away from the burn site. He started heading in the direction he sensed Rukia's reiatsu in, moving with the crowd and blending in. "I'm coming for ya Rukia... hang on!"

* * *

1. Good luck!

2. Hal Jordan doesn't appear in Justice league or JLU, but Kyle Rayner does briefly in The Return. So because he doesn't have a JLU voice actor (and this is my Law and order fangirliness showing through here again) I'm using the Christopher Meloni voice from Green Lantern First Flight. 3333333 (fangirly lubbers on Detective Stabler.)

3. Cue Bleach OST "Will of the heart."


End file.
